ni-n.JRCHiMAN r S EDITION 

THE WHY AND HOW 1 
OF FOREIGN MISSIONS 

ARTHUR J. BROWN 



Book r&^r 

Copyright^ 1^9 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



CHURCHMAN'S EDITION 

THE WHY AND HOW 
OF FOREIGN MISSIONS 



Helps for the study class leaders using this book may be obtained by 
corresponding with the Educational Secretary, at the Church Missions House, 
281 Fourth Avenue, New York City. 



CHURCHMAN'S EDITION 



THE WHY AND HOW 
OF FOREIGN MISSIONS 



BY 

ARTHUR JUDSON BROWN 



New York 

DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF 
THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN 
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
1909 



LIST; AH Y of CONGRESS 
Two Codes Received 

MAR 5 1809 

- Copyrigftt Entry 
CLASS (X- ** c ' Afo« 



Copyright, 1909, by 
Young People's Missionary Movement 
of the United States and Canada 



TO THE 
FRIENDS IN THE HOME 
CHURCHES WHO HAVE LOYALLY 
SUSTAINED THE CAUSE OF FOREIGN 
MISSIONS, NOT ONLY BY THEIR 
GIFTS, BUT BY THEIR 
SYMPATHY AND 
PRAYERS 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Preface to the Churchman's Edition ix 

Preface xi 

I The Foreign Missionary Motive and Aim.. i 

II Foreign Missionary Administration 29 

III Qualifications and Appointment 71 

IV The Financial Support of the Missionary 

Enterprise 95 

V The Missionary at Work 123 

VI The Native Church 151 

VII The Missionary Enterprise and its Critics . 187 

VIII The Spirit of the Missionary 221 

IX The Home Church and the Enterprise 245 



vii 



PREFACE TO THE CHURCHMAN'S 
EDITION 

This edition of The Why and How of For- 
eign Missions is made possible through the 
courtesy and kind permission of the author, and 
of the Young People's Missionary Movement. 
Slight changes in phraseology have been made 
here and there throughout the book. The chap- 
ters on "Foreign Missionary Administration" 
and "The Native Church" have been largely 
rewritten in order to present the details of our 
missionary administration. 

Everett P. Smith, 
Educational Secretary, Domestic and For- 
eign Missionary Society. 
Church Missions House, New York City. 
Epiphany, 1909. 



ix 



PREFACE 



This book has been prepared in compliance 
with a request of the Young People's Mis- 
sionary Movement for a succinct statement of 
those aspects of the modern foreign mission- 
ary enterprise which are of special interest to 
laymen, in a form adapted to the needs of busy 
people and of mission study classes. It there- 
fore discusses the chief motives that prompt 
to foreign missionary effort, the objects that 
are sought, the methods of handling and ad- 
ministering funds, the kind of persons who are 
appointed to missionary service, the work that 
they are doing, the difficulties they encounter, 
the spirit they manifest, and the objections and 
criticisms which disturb so many people at 
home. Prominence is given to the large prob- 
lems which are involved in the magnitude of 
the foreign missionary enterprise, and in the 
changing world conditions caused not only by 
the religious but by the political, commercial, 
and intellectual movements of our age. 

Those who are familiar with the author's 
larger book, The Foreign Missionary, will 
note that much of the material of this book has 
been taken from that volume. The present 
work, however, is not a condensation of the 

xi 



xii 



Preface 



larger one, nor is it intended to take its place. 
The idea in this book is simply to take such 
parts of The Foreign Missionary as may be 
of special interest to laymen who desire a 
brief statement of the essential elements of 
the foreign missionary movement, leaving 
The Foreign Missionary, not only as a work of 
reference, but as a preferable volume for 
student volunteers and missionaries. 

I gladly acknowledge valuable assistance 
from the Editorial Committee of the Young 
People's Missionary Movement in adapting 
this book to the use of mission study classes. 

Arthur Judson Brown. 

Xew York City, 
June i, 1908. 



THE FOREIGN MISSIONARY 
MOTIVE AND AIM 



The goal of history is the redemption of the world. 
The consummation of all missionary endeavor will be 
when the knowledge of Jesus Christ has become uni- 
versal. Hence, the aim of missions is to make Jesus 
Christ known to every creature, so that he may have 
an intelligent opportunity to accept him as his Savior. 

— /. Ross Stevenson 

So, to sum the matter up, the Christian missionary 
motive is threefold. We are summoned by God in 
Christ to join with him in doing that work of saving 
grace toward men which is nearest to his heart, and 
we cannot refuse : loyalty to God and Christ constrains 
us. We have received in Christ the best good in life, 
and are impelled from within to impart it: love to 
men constrains us. The world needs the gift, and needs 
it now : and the tremendous want constrains us. The 
threefold motive is justified by present facts and by 
eternal realities, and there is nothing that can legiti- 
mately deprive it of its force, except the full accom- 
plishment of the end. No special views are needed 
to enforce the motive. Taking the world exactly as 
it is and as all sound knowledge finds it, the motive 
is sufficient. But it is a spiritual motive, and must 
therefore be spiritually discerned. 

— William Newton Clarke 



I 



THE FOREIGN MISSIONARY 
MOTIVE AND AIM 

RECENT years have seen some change of Emphasi ? s f 
emphasis in the motives which prompt 
men to engage in the foreign missionary en- 
terprise. Some motives that stirred our 
fathers are not as strongly operative to-day, 
but others have emerged that were then but 
vaguely discerned. 

It is now generally recognized that mission ^ New 

o J o World-vie^ 

work must be prosecuted amid changed con- 
ditions. Our constituency has a knowledge of 
the non-christian world that in the past it did 
not have. Men in our churches are no longer 
so ignorant of other peoples. Books and mag- 
azine articles have dissipated the mystery of 
the Orient. Electricity enables the newspapers 
to tell us every morning what occurred yester- 
day in Seoul and Peking, in Rangoon and 
Teheran. Our treatment of the Chinese and 
the Negro testify to the fact that race preju- 
dice is still strong. Nevertheless, the white 
man does not look down upon the men of 
other races as he did a century ago. He recog- 

3 



4 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



nizes more clearly the good qualities which 
some of the non-christian peoples possess. He 
hears more of the industry of the Chinese and 
the intellect of the Hindu. This recognition is 
not unmingled with fear. No white man of to- 
day despises the Japanese, certainly not in 
Russia ; nor can any one view with unconcern 
the evidences of awakening national life among 
the teeming myriads of the Orient, 
illusions The transition from the first century of Pro- 

Dispelled . . - 1 

testant missions to the second century is 
attended by no more significant change 
than this. People at home are no longer under 
illusions as to what non-christians are, and 
they, in turn, are no longer under illusions as 
to what we are. The romance of missions in 
the popular mind has been largely dispelled. 
The missionary is no longer a hero to the 
average Christian, but a man with a message 
to his fellow man. 
Extent of There are, too, certain movements of theo- 

Missionary 7 7 

obligation logical thought which must be considered. 

Whatever we may think of them, we cannot 
ignore their prevalence, nor should we argue 
that they are inconsistent with missionary in- 
terest. No man should be allowed to feel that 
he is exempt from the missionary obligation 
because he is not influenced by our particular 
motive, or because he adopts a different inter- 
pretation of Bible teaching regarding certain 



Foreign Missionary Motive 



5 



doctrines. We may deplore his interpretation, 
but we cannot admit that it releases him from 
the duty of cooperating in this work. Every 
man who believes in a just and loving personal 
God and receives the benefits of Christianity, 
whether he shares our theological convictions 
or not, should aid in the effort to communicate 
those benefits to races that have not received 
them. 

Changes in the political and economic life Motive n centers 
of the world, in the attitude of the Christian inChrist 
nations toward the non-christian, and their at- 
titude in turn toward us, do not impair the 
primary missionary motive. Rather do they 
increase it. No changes that have taken place 
or that can possibly take place can set aside the 
great central facts that Jesus Christ is the 
temporal and eternal salvation of men, and 
that it is the duty of those who know him to 
tell others about him. There may be questions 
as to method, but no objection lies against the 
essential enterprise that does not lie with equal 
force against the fundamental truths of the 
Christian religion. Through all the tumult of 
theological strife, the one figure that is stand- 
ing out more and more clearly and command- 
ingly before men is the figure of the Son of 
Man, the Divine and Eternal Son of the Ever- 
Living God. In him is the true unity of the 
race and around him cluster its noblest activi- 



6 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



Primary and 
Secondary- 
Motives 



A Genuine 
Christian 



ties. No matter how much Christians may- 
differ as to other things, they will be more 
and more agreed as to the imperative duty and 
the inspiring privilege of preaching Jesus 
Christ to the whole world. 

Foreign missionary motives may be divided 
into two main classes, primary and secondary, 
though this classification is arbitrary and 
though there may be difference of opinion as 
to the class to which certain motives properly 
belong. The primary motives, as we conceive 
them, are three. 

i. The Soul's Experience in Christ. In 
Experience proportion as this is genuine and deep, will we 
desire to communicate it to others. Propaga- 
tion is a law of the spiritual life. The genius 
of Christianity is expansive. Ruskin reminds 
us of Southey's statement that no man was 
ever yet convinced of any momentous truth 
without feeling in himself the power as well as 
the desire of communicating it. That was an 
exquisite touch of regenerated nature, and one 
beautifully illustrative of the promptings of a 
normal Christian experience, which led An- 
drew, after he rose from Jesus' feet, to find 
first his own brother, Simon, and say unto 
him: "We have found the Messiah. . . . 
He brought him unto Jesus." No external 
authority, however commanding, can take the 
place of this internal motive. 



Foreign Missionary Motive 7 



People who say that they do not believe in commu" 
foreign missions are usually quite unconscious 
of the indictment which they bring against their 
own spiritual experience. The man who has 
no religion of his own that he values of course 
is not interested in the effort to make it known 
to others. One may be simply ignorant of the 
content of his faith or the real character of 
the missionary movement, but as a rule those 
who know the real meaning of the Christian 
experience are conscious of an overmastering 
impulse to communicate it to others. 

2. The World's Need of Christ. He who 
has knowledge that is essential to his fellow 
men is under obligation to convey that knowl- 
edge to them. It makes no difference who 
those men are, or where they live, or whether 
they are conscious of their need, or how much 
inconvenience or expense he may incur in 
reaching them. The fact that he can help them 
is reason why he should help them. This is 
an essential part of the foreign missionary im- 
pulse. We have the revelation of God which 
is potential of a civilization that benefits man, 
an education that fits him for higher useful- 
ness, a scientific knowledge that enlarges his 
powers, a medical skill that alleviates his suf- 
ferings, and above all a relation to Jesus Christ 
that not only lends new dignity to this earthly 
life but that saves his soul and prepares him 



8 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



Breadth of 
Soul Required 



Salvation Still 
the Aim 



for eternal companionship with God. "In 
none other is there salvation." Therefore, we 
must convey this gospel to the world. There 
is no worthy reason for being concerned about 
the salvation of the man next to us which is 
not equally applicable to the man five thousand 
miles away. 

"It is hard to realize this concerning those 
who are so distant?" Precisely; foreign mis- 
sionary interest presupposes breadth of soul. 
Any one can love his own family, but it takes 
a high-souled man to love all men. He who 
has that which the world needs is debtor to the 
world. The true disciple would feel this even 
if Christ had spoken no command. The mis- 
sionary impulse would have stirred him to 
spontaneous action. Christ simply voiced the 
highest and holiest dictates of the human heart 
when he summoned his followers to missionary 
activity. The question whether the heathen 
really need Christ may be answered by the 
counter-question: Do we need him? and the 
intensity of our desire to tell them of Christ 
will be in proportion to the intensity of our 
own sense of need. 

We do not hear as much as our fathers 
heard of the motive of salvation of the heathen. 
Our age prefers to dwell upon the blessings of 
faith rather than upon the consequences of un- 
belief. And yet if we believe that Christ is our 



Foreign Missionary Motive 



"life," it is impossible to avoid the conclusion 
that to be without Christ is death. Reason as 
well as revelation tells us that man has sinned, 
that "the wages of sin is death/' and that this 
truth is as applicable to Asia and Africa as to 
Europe and America. We grant that it is 
possible that some who have never heard of 
Christ may be saved. The Spirit of God is 
not shut up to the methods that have been re- 
vealed to us. He works when and where and 
how he pleases. In ways unknown to us, he 
may apply the benefits of redemption to those 
who, without opportunity to accept the historic 
Christ, may live up to the light they have. 
Missionaries tell us that they seldom find such 
cases; but we should not dogmatize regarding 
every individual of the millions who have never 
been approached. 

Taking non-christian peoples as we know Non-ct 
them, however, it is sorrowfully, irrefutably Pe °P le 
true that they are living in known sin, and 
that by no possible stretch of charity can they 
be considered beyond the necessity for the re- 
vealed gospel. Various statements and figures 
are used in the New Testament to express the 
condition of those who know not Christ, but 
whether they are interpreted literally or figur- 
atively, their fundamental meaning is plain. 
Jesus came "to save," and salvation is from 
something. A charitable hope that some are 



io Why and How of Foreign Missions 

living like the pious Hebrews before the in- 
carnation does not lessen our duty to give them 
the clearer knowledge, which, like Simeon of 
old, they would eagerly welcome, nor does it 
modify in the least our obligation toward the 
masses who are living on a lower level. The 
Light shines for all, and those who see it must 
spread the tidings; for every man, however 
degraded, is 

"Heir of the same inheritance, 

Child of the self-same God. 
He hath but stumbled in the path 
We have in weakness trod. ,, 

command 3- The Command of Christ. The circum- 
stances were inexpressibly solemn. He had ris- 
en from the dead and was about to ascend to 
the Father. But ere he left his disciples, he said 
unto them: "All authority hath been given 
unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye there- 
fore, and make disciples of all the nations, 
baptizing them into the name of the Father 
and of the Son and the Holy Spirit: teach- 
ing them to observe all things whatsoever I 
commanded you: and lo, I am with you al- 
ways, even unto the end of the world." 1 A 
little later, he reiterated the charge: "Ye 
shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and 
in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the utter- 



1 Matt. xxviii. 18-20. 



Foreign Missionary Motive II 



most part of the earth." 1 "And he lifted up 
his hands and blessed them" 2 "And a cloud 
received him out of their sight." 3 

There is no gainsaying that command. ^ompemnT* 
Whether we consider the Person who gave it, ° rder 
the circumstances in which it was given, or 
the duty imposed, we must regard it as the 
weightiest of utterances. If it were the only 
motive, foreign missionary work would be a 
mechanical performance of duty, the mission- 
ary merely an obedient soldier; but taken in 
connection with the preceding motives, it adds 
the impressive sanctions of divine authority. 
It is the bugle call which, to the true soldier, 
never loses its thrilling, response-compelling 
power. It is not a request; not a suggestion. 
Still less does it invite debate. It leaves noth- 
ing to our choice. It is an order, comprehen- 
sive and unequivocal, a clear, peremptory, 
categorical imperative: "Go!" 

No one can read the New Testament with- Thou S g U h P t r of me 
out seeing that the evangelization of the world 
was the supreme thought of Christ. He came 
into the world to save it. He sought, not 
merely for the rich and influential, but for 
men as men, irrespective of their wealth or 
position. When the blind beggar cried out to 
him for help, he said unto him: "Go thy 
way; thy faith has made thee whole." 4 When 

1 Acts i. 8. 2 Luke xxiv. so. 3 Acts i. 9. 4 Mark x. 52. 



Christ 



12 Why and How of Foreign Missions 

he saw the famishing multitude, he "had com- 
passion on them, because they were as sheep 
not having a shepherd." 1 He could not bear 
to see men perish, and the thought of it caused 
him keenest agony. He was himself a mis- 
sionary, and his entire ministry was a mis- 
sionary ministry. While his earthly life was 
confined to Palestine, he made it clear that 
the scope of his purpose was world-wide. He 
plainly said: "Other sheep I have, which are 
not of this fold : them also I must bring, and 
they shall hear my voice." 2 He declared that 
"God so loved the world that he gave his only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on 
him should not perish, but have eternal life." 3 
He taught the sublime truth of the Fatherhood 
of God and the brotherhood of man. He 
broke down the partition wall between Jew 
and Gentile. In an age when men regarded 
men of other races as foes, he said: "Love 
your enemies." He showed the race-proud 
Jews that the Samaritan was their "neighbor." 
Going "into the borders of Tyre and 
Sidon," he saved a poor Syrophoenician wom- 
an. 4 From heaven he gave Paul his com- 
mission to the Gentiles. With a vision of 
world conquest, he exclaimed: "I say unto 
you, that many shall come from the east and 
the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, 



1 Mark vi. 34. 2 John x. 16. 8 Johniii. 16. 4 Mark vii. 24-26, 



Foreign Missionary Motive 13 



and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heav- 
en/' 1 "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, 
will draw all men unto myself." 2 

And still the world's evangelization is his ThiugffsSu 
supreme thought. He is "the same yesterday 
and to-day, yea and for ever." He knows no 
distinction of race or caste. He loves men, 
and, as Phelps has said, the most attractive 
spots to him are "those which are crowded 
with the densest masses of human beings." 
Now, as of old, the Son of Man looks upon a 
sorrowing, dying world with pity unutterable. 
This is the attitude of the divine heart. 
Christ said that when the prodigal "was yet 
afar off, his father saw him, and was moved 
with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck 
and kissed him." Seeing him "afar off" of 
course means that he was looking for him, 
gazing often and with fatherly yearning far 
down the road on which he hoped and prayed 
and knew that the wanderer would soon some. 

His love seeks the most distant. We com- saivltfon 
placently imagine that God loves us more ofAU 
than any other people; but the Shepherd who 
left the ninety and nine sheep in the wilder- 
ness and sought the one that was lost is surely 
most tenderly solicitous, not about us in our. 
comfortable, gospel-lightened homes, but about 
the oppressed blacks of Africa and the starv- 

1 Matt. viii. n. 2 John xii. 32. 



14 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



ing millions of India. Whoever fancies that 
God does not love all men and that Christ does 
not desire the salvation of all men but dimly 
sees the truth. Jehovah is the God of the 
whole earth. Christ "is the propitiation for 
our sins; and not for ours only, but also for 
the whole world. 5,1 
The Heresy of Since the salvation of men is Christ's su- 

Disobedience 

preme thought, it should be ours. How is it 
possible for one who professes to follow Christ 
not to believe in missions, when missions are 
simply the organized effort to carry out the 
will of the Master ? Men talk about heresy as 
if it related only to the creed. Jesus said, "I 
and the Father are one;" but he also said, 
"Go ye into all the world, and preach the 
gospel to the whole creation.'' Is it not as 
heretical to deny one statement as the other? 
Failure to do the will of Christ emasculates 
the essential idea of the Church. There may 
be a noble edifice, a large congregation, bril- 
liant oratory, inspiring music; but if the Mas- 
ter's call is not heard and heeded, it cannot 
be a church of the living God. 
Neglect is Those who are solicitous about the salva- 

Unchnstian 

tion of the heathen who die without having 
heard of Christ may well add some concern 
about the salvation of professed Christians 
who, with the Bible in their hands, the com- 

1 i John ii. 2. 



Foreign Missionary Motive 15 



mand of Christ sounding in their ears, and the 
condition of the lost world before their eyes, 
manifest but languid interest in the effort to 
save the world. It is difficult to understand 
how those who profess to serve Christ can be 
indifferent to the most important work which 
Christ has committed to his followers, or 
how they can expect his blessing while they 
neglect his specific injunction. "If a man love 
me, he will keep my word," said Christ 1 ; and 
the word is, "Go, preach." These words 
surely mean that Christ intended every one 
of his disciples to have some part in the ef- 
fort to make the gospel known to all men, 
either by personally going or by giving 
toward the support of those who do go. The 
obligation is laid upon the conscience of every 
Christian. This majestic enterprise is of di- 
vine authority. When a young clergyman 
asked the Duke of Wellington whether he did 
not deem it useless to attempt to convert India, 
the great general sternly replied, "What are 
your marching orders, sir?" If we believe in 
Christ, we must believe in foreign missions. 

Foreign missions, therefore, is not a side 0? thSwiSff 
issue, the object of an occasional "collection" ; church 
it is the supreme duty of the Church, the main 
work of the Church. So the first disciples un- 
derstood it, for they immediately went forth 

1 John xiv. 23. 



16 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



as missionaries. It is interesting to note that 
the word "apostle" is derived from a Greek 
word which means one sent forth, a messenger, 
and that the word "missionary" coitkj 
from an original which is simply the Latin 
equivalent of the Greek apostle. The foreign 
missionary, like the apostles, goes away from 
home to preach the gospel to the scattered na- 
tions of the earth ; and nothing brings us closer 
to the spirit and practise of the early Church 
than the comparison of the missionary methods 
of to-day with those of the New Testament. 

cr£atiwr' 0le ^ e ma Y well be awed by the majesty of 
Christ's declaration; a lonely Nazarene, sur- 
rounded by a handful of humble followers, 
calmly bidding them carry his teaching to the 
most distant nations. They were not to con- 
fine their efforts to their own country. "The 
whole creation" must be reached. No excep- 
tions are to be made. Christ did not say, 
"Teach all nations, save those that you deem 
beneath you;" nor did he say, "Preach to 
every creature, except the Hindu and Buddhist 
and Mohammedan, who have religions of their 
own." He made the scope of his command 
absolutely universal. 

Earth deemed ft is the Purpose of God, said Paul, "to 
reconcile all things unto himself." We should 
never lose sight of the grandeur of this con- 
ception. Christianity is not a life-boat sent 



Foreign Missionary Motive 17 



out to a sinking ship to rescue a few passen- 
gers and let the rest go to the bottom. It will 
save all the passengers, unless they refuse to be 
saved, and it will save the ship. The Church 
looks to a redeemed earth. Let us hope and 
pray and work for nothing short of that stu- 
pendous consummation. Limiting the grace 
of God, doubting its adequacy for all men, act- 
ing as if it were for America and not for 
Africa and the islands of the sea, are sins 
against the Holy Ghost. 

These are and ever must remain the pri- SfSivea^ 
mary motives of the missionary enterprise. 
There are others, however, of a secondary 
character, which are influential with many 
people and which may be briefly enumerated. 

1. In many ways the missionary is "the ad- Civilizatior 
vance agent of civilization." As the product 
of centuries of Christian civilization, with all 
its customs and ideals, he appears in a rude 
village in Africa. He opposes slavery, polyg- 
amy, cannibalism, and infanticide. He teaches 
the boys to be honest, sober, and thrifty; the 
girls to be pure, intelligent, and industrious. 
He induces the natives to cover their nakedness, 
to build houses, and to till the soil. He in- 
culcates and exemplifies the social and civic 
virtues. His own home and his treatment of 
his wife and daughters are object-lessons in a 
community which has always treated woman 



i8 Why and How of Foreign Missions 

as a slave. The inertia of long-established 
heathenism is hard to overcome, but slowly it 
yields to the new power, and the beginning of 
civilized society gradually appears. Volumes 
might be filled with the testimonies of states- 
men, travelers, and military and naval officers 
to the value of missionary work from this 
view-point, and the cumulative power of this 
class of evidence is doubtless a large factor 
in the growing respect for missions in the 
public mind. This motive appeals more par- 
ticularly to persons of the intellectual type, 
philanthropy 2 The philanthropic motive is stirred 
by the consciousness of human brotherhood 
and the natural desire to relieve the 
appalling suffering and ignorance which prevail 
throughout the heathen world. Christ is the 
Great Physician now as of old. As we see 
the prevalence of disease and misery, the un- 
tended ulcers, the sightless eyes to which the 
surgeon's skill could bring light, the pain- 
racked limbs pierced with red-hot needles to 
kill the alleged demon that causes the suffer- 
ing, and the fevered bodies that are made ten 
times worse by the superstitious and 
bungling methods of treatment, our sympa- 
thies are profoundly moved, and we freely 
give and labor that such agony may be alle- 
viated. Medical missions with their hospitals 
and dispensaries strongly appeal to this mo- 



Foreign Missionary Motive 



19 



tive, as do also educational missions with their 
teaching of the principles of better living. 
The gospel itself is sometimes preached and 
supported from this motive, for it is plain 
that the sufferings of men are diminished and 
the dignity and the worth of life increased by 
the application of the principles of Chris- 
tianity to human society. This motive appeals 
strongly to those of the emotional type. 

3. The argument from results is the most 
decisive with many people of the utilitarian 
type. They want to see that their money ac- 
complishes something, to know that their in- 
vestment is yielding tangible return. They 
eagerly scan missionary reports to ascertain 
how many converts have been made, how 
many pupils are being taught, how many 
patients are being treated. Telling them 
of successes achieved is the surest method 
of inducing them to increase their gifts. 
Mission boards often find it difficult to 
sustain interest in apparently unproductive 
fields, but comparatively easy to arouse en- 
thusiasm for fields in which converts are 
quickly made. The Churches are eager and 
even impatient for results. Fortunately, in 
many lands results have been achieved on such 
a scale as to satisfy this demand. But in other 
lands not less important weary years have had 
to be spent in preparing the soil and sowing 



20 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



the seed, and hard-working missionaries have 
been half disheartened by the insistent popular 
demand for accounts of baptisms before the 
harvest-time has fairly come. 
incrll^ng\y es There is, apparently, a growing disposition 
Emphasized to exalt this whole class of motives. The basis 
of the missionary appeal has noticeably 
changed within the last generation. Our com- 
mercial, humanitarian, and practical age is 
more impressed by the physical and the tem- 
poral than the actual and the utilitarian. The 
idea of saving men for the present world ap- 
peals more strongly than the idea of saving 
them for the next world, and missionary ser- 
mons and addresses give large emphasis to 
these motives. We need not and should not 
undervalue them. They are real. It is legiti- 
mate and Christian to seek the temporal wel- 
fare of our fellow men, to alleviate their dis- 
tresses, to exalt woman, and to purify society. 
It is, moreover, true and to the credit of the 
missionary enterprise that it widens the area of 
the world's useful knowledge, introduces the 
conveniences and necessities of Christian civ- 
ilization, and promotes wealth and power; 
while it is certainly reasonable that those who 
toil should desire to see some results from 
their labor and be encouraged and incited to 
renewed diligence by the inspiring record of 
achievements. 



Foreign Missionary Motive 21 



But these motives are nevertheless distinctly fot of , First 

J Importance 

secondary. The benefits mentioned are ef- 
fects of the missionary enterprise rather than 
primary motives for it, and the true Christian 
would still be obliged to give and pray and 
work for the evangelization of the world, even 
if not one of these motives existed. More- 
over, with the wider diffusion of knowledge, 
some of these considerations are becoming 
relatively less important. Japan, India, and 
the Philippines have schools which give ex- 
cellent secular training, and philanthropic in- 
stitutions under secular auspices, though un- 
doubtedly due to Christian influences, are be- 
ginning to come into existence. As for civil- 
ization, some non-christian lands already have 
civilizations of their own, more ancient than 
ours, and, so far as moral questions are not 
involved, quite as well adapted to their needs, 
while our own civilization is not by any means 
wholly Christian. Whether men are civilized 
or not, we must continue our missionary work. 
The achievements of a hundred years of mis- 
sionary effort are encouraging; but if they 
were not, our duty would not be affected. We 
are to do what is right, though we never see 
visible results. Christ's life was a failure, 
from the view-point of his own generation ; so 
were the efforts of Paul and Peter and 
Stephen; but later generations saw the rich 



22 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



Aims to be Kept 
in Mind 



A Personal 
Savior 



The Gospel 

Intelligently 

Known 



fruitage. Like them, the true missionary toils 
from motives that are independent of present 
appearances. He knows that he is working 
with God, for God, and in obedience to God, 
and, with Faber, he is confident that in the 

^ "He always wins who sides with God; 
With Him no chance is lost." 

It is important that we should have a clear 
idea of the aim of the missionary enterprise. 
Of course, all know in a general way that it 
is proposed to "convert the heathen" ; but be- 
yond that, many who support the work and 
even some who apply for appointment appear 
to have only vague ideas. But the missionary 
movement is not a mere crusade. It has cer- 
tain definite aims, and these aims must be 
kept clearly in mind if the work is to be in- 
telligently and efficiently done. 

First of all, the aim is to present Christ so 
intelligently to men that they will accept him 
as their personal Savior. 

Emphasis should be laid upon the word "in- 
telligently." This idea excludes the hurried 
and superficial presentation of the gospel. It 
is not enough to go into a non-christian com- 
munity, proclaim Christ for a few days or 
months, and then pass on, in the belief that 
we have discharged our responsibility. Even 
Americans and Europeans with all their gen- 



Foreign Missionary Aim 23 



eral knowledge do not grasp new ideas so 
quickly as that, and we cannot reasonably ex- 
pect other races to do so. To a large part of 
the non-christian world, Christ is still un- 
known, even by name, and a great majority 
of those who have heard of him know him only 
in such a general way as most people in this 
country have heard of Mencius or Zoro- 
aster. Of his real character and relation to 
men, they know nothing, nor does it ever oc- 
cur to them that they are under any obliga- 
tion to him. Moreover, what little they have 
heard of him as a historical personage is be- 
clouded and distorted by all the inherited and 
hostile presumptions of age-old prejudices, 
superstitions, and spiritual deadness. In such 
circumstances to make Christ intelligently 
known is apt to be a long and perhaps a weari- 
some effort. Bishop Boone in China toiled ten 
years before his heart was gladdened by one 
solitary convert. Tyler in South Africa saw 
fifteen laborious years pass before the first Zulu 
accepted Christ, while Gilmour preached for 
twenty years in Mongolia before visible results 
appeared. After the Asiatic mind once fairly 
grasps the new truth, progress usually becomes 
more rapid ; but at first, and sometimes for long 
periods, it is apt to be painfully slow. The mis- 
sionary and the Church that supports him often 
have need of patience. 



24 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



spiritual End In urging emphasis on the evangelistic 
phases of the work, we are not unmindful of 
the value of other forms of missionary activity. 
The missionary is following the example of 
Christ in alleviating the bodily sufferings of 
men, while it is absolutely necessary to trans- 
late and print the Bible, to create a Christian 
literature, to teach the young and to train them 
for leadership in the coming Church. Man 
must be influenced at every stage of his career 
and shown that Christianity is adapted to his 
present state as well as to his future life. 
Nevertheless, hospitals and schools and 
presses are means, not ends. They are of 
value just in proportion as they aid the evangel- 
istic effort, either by widening its opportunity 
or by conserving its results. The aim is not 
philanthropic or educational or literary, but 
spiritual. It is a new birth, an internal, not 
an external transformation, that men most 
vitally need. The external transformation will 
follow. 

church igenous P ersona l presentation of Christ with a 

view to men's acceptance of him as Savior is 
to issue as soon as possible in the organization 
of converts into self-propagating, self-sup- 
porting, and self-governing churches. This is 
a vital part of the missionary aim. Chris- 
tianity will not control a nation's life as long as 
it is an exotic. It must become an indigenous 



Foreign Missionary Aim 



25 



growth. To this end, effort must be put forth 
to develop the independent energies of the 
converts. The new convert is usually a spirit- 
ual child, and like a physical child, he must 
be for a time "under tutors and governors ,, ; 
but the instruction looks to the development 
of self-reliant character. In the words of 
Lawrence: "God's great agent for the 
spread of his kingdom is the Church, 
. . . . and missions exist distinctly for 
the Church. . . . Then the Church of each 
land, thus planted, must win its own people to 
Christ." 1 

SUGGESTIONS FOR USING THE QUESTIONS 

Most of these questions are thought questions. That 
is, they require for their answers some original think- 
ing. This form of question has been chosen for in- 
sertion in the text-book (1) because questions which 
constitute a mere memory test of the facts of the text 
can easily be constructed by any leader or member who 
makes an outline of the principal facts, and (2) be- 
cause mere memory questions, although they have their 
uses, yield far less than thought questions either in 
mental development or in permanent impression. In 
some cases complete answers will be found in the text- 
book; usually statements that will serve as a basis for 
inference; but a few questions appeal solely to the 
general knowledge and common sense of the student. 
The greatest sources of inspiration and growth will 
be, not what the text-book adds to the student, but 



1 Lawrence, Modern Missions in the East, 31. 



26 Why and How of Foreign Missions 

what the student adds to the text-book; the former is 
only a means to the latter. 

In using these questions, therefore, let the leader first 
gather from the chapter or from previous chapters 
all that relates to the subject. It will be found profit- 
able to jot down this material so that it will be all 
under the eye at once; then think, using freely all the 
knowledge, mental power, and reference books avail- 
able. For the sake of definiteness, conclusions should 
be written out. It is not supposed that the average 
leader will be able to answer all these questions satis- 
factorily; otherwise, there would be little left for the 
class session. The main purpose of the session is to 
compare imperfect results and arrive at greater com- 
pleteness by comparison and discussion. 

It is not probable that the entire list of questions 
will be used in any one case, especially when the ses- 
sions last only an hour. The length of the session, the 
maturity of the class, and the taste of the leader will 
all influence the selection that will be made. In many 
cases the greatest value of these questions will be to 
suggest others that will be better. Some of the ques- 
tions will require more mature thought and should be 
made the basis of discussion. 

There has been no attempt to follow the order of 
paragraphs in the text-book in more than a general 
way. 

QUESTIONS OX CHAPTER I 

Aim : To Determine an Adequate Aim for Foreign 
Missions Based Upon Adequate Personal 
Motives 

1. What is your definition of a Christian? 

2. What are the principal privileges of the Chris- 
tian life? Arrange in the order of their im- 
portance. 



Foreign Missionary Aim 27 



3. How do they seem to you to compare in value 
with mental or physical benefits? 

4. To what part of mankind are these privileges 
open? 

5. Is there anything in the nature of these privi- 
leges that would especially lead you to share 
them? 

6. What would you take to permit your sister, 
or daughter, to grow up from infancy in heath- 
en society? 

7. Would she not have a chance of being saved, 
if she lived up to *the light she had ? 

8. Would you be satisfied to have her merely sur- 
rounded by the influences of Christian society? 

9. What would she miss by not having a person- 
al knowledge of Christ? 

10. What parts of the world seem to you to be 
in the most need of Christianity? 

11. What do you understand to be the purpose 
for which Christ came into the world? 

12. How wide-reaching was this purpose? 

13. What place did it have in his thoughts? 

14. How did he expect it to be carried out? 

15. What passages of Scripture can you quote in 
support of your opinions on the last three 
questions ? 

16. What do you consider the principal personal 
obligations resting on every Christian? 

17. What is the relation of these obligations to the 
privileges of the Christian life? 

iS. What claim has foreign missions upon Chris- 
tians who happen to be interested in other 
things instead? 

19. What place ought it to occupy in the prayer 
and giving and service of the average Chris- 
tian at home? 



28 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



20. Word what seems to you the strongest motive 
for pursuing the work of foreign missions. 

21. Are there any reasons why the responsibility 
of the present generation is greater than that 
of those that are past? 

22. Tell all the things you would need to know and 
do, in order to make Christ intelligently known 
in a heathen village, where he had never been 
preached. 

23. Would it be sufficient to make a correct state- 
ment of the way of salvation just once to each 
individual in the village? 

24. Would you consider that you had fulfilled your 
Christian duty to your own brother when you 
had done that much for him? 

25. What is there in the two cases that is not 
parallel? 

26. Should we expect our missionaries in person 
to make Christ intelligently known to each 
individual of the heathen world? 

27. By what agency will the mass of the non- 
christian world be evangelized? 

28. What is the principal aim of the foreign 
missionary force? 

29. To what extent will the civilizing motive 
contribute to this aim? 

30. To what extent, the philanthropic motive? 

31. In what way might the desire for results 
hinder the complete realization of this aim? 

32. In view of the combined motives for foreign 
missionary work, how does its claim on the 
individual Christian and on the Christian 
Church seem to you to compare with that of 
other causes? 



FOREIGN MISSIONARY 
ADMINISTRATION 



29 



The great problem in the administration of missions 
is to combine in due proportions decentralization in 
the conduct of details and centralization in the settle- 
ment of principles. On the importance of the former 
all are agreed ; but not on the value of the latter. There 
has sometimes been a tendency to resent the control 
of a central body on the ground that its members 
cannot know the mission as well as those actually in 
the field. To a large extent, however, the reverse 
is the case. The central body, no doubt, cannot know 
the details of any one particular mission so well as 
the missionaries in that mission ; but those missionaries 
only know their own mission, while the central body 
can know, and often does know, the missions of 
the society generally, and in considering questions of 
missionary policy and method the experiences of several 
missions is often the best guide for the administration 
of any one of them. Moreover, the central body gen- 
erally comprises not only clergymen and laymen in 
the home Church who have made a careful study of 
the missionary problems, but also retired missionaries 
of long experience from different parts of the world, 
and civil and military officers who have been the friends 
and supporters of missions in the countries where they 
served, particularly in India. — Eugene Stock 



3° 



II 



FOREIGN MISSIONARY 
ADMINISTRATION 

WORLD evangelization being the supreme A^centrai 
work of the Church, the method of ad- Necessary 
ministration should be commensurate in scope 
and dignity with the task to be performed. 
Such a work cannot be properly done by in- 
dividuals, nor by congregations acting separate- 
ly. It is too vast, the distance too great, the 
single act too small. Local churches do not 
have the experience in dealing with mission- 
ary problems, nor the comprehensive knowledge 
of details necessary for the proper conduct of 
such an enterprise. Moreover, the individual 
may die or lose his money. The single church 
may become indifferent or discouraged. Even 
if neither of these alternatives happened, the 
work would lack stability. It would be fitful, 
sporadic, too largely dependent upon accidental 
knowledge or temporary emotion. A chance 
newspaper article or a visit from some enthu- 
siastic missionary might direct a disproportion- 
ate stream, of gifts to one field, while others 
equally or perhaps more important would be 
neglected. The wise expenditure of large sums 

31 



32 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



of money in far distant lands, the checks and 
safeguards essential to prudent control, the 
equitable distribution of workers and forms of 
work, the proper balancing of interests between 
widely-scattered and isolated points, the for- 
mulation of principles of mission policy — all 
these require a central administrative agency. 
opVrat C ions 0f Foreign missionary work is in remote 
lands, in different languages, among diverse 
peoples. It is, moreover, a varied and com- 
plex work, including not only churches, but 
day-schools, boarding schools, industrial 
schools, normal schools; colleges, academic, 
medical, and theological; inquirers' classes, 
hospitals, and dispensaries; the translation, 
publishing, and selling of books and tracts; 
the purchase and care of property; the health 
and homes and furloughs of missionaries; 
fluctuating currencies of many kinds ; negotia- 
tions with governments ; and a mass of details 
little understood by the home Church. Prob- 
lems and interrelations with other work are 
involved, which are entirely beyond the ex- 
perience of the home minister, and which call 
for an expert knowledge, only possible to one 
who devotes his entire time to their acquisi- 
tion. 

IdenS 88 Dr - Cust sa Y s that " the conduct of mis- 
sions in heathen and Mohammedan countries 
has already risen to the dignity of a science, 



Foreign Missionary Administration 33 

only to be learned by long and continuous prac- 
tise, discussion, reading, and reflection; it is 
the occupation of the whole life and of many 
hours of each day of many able men selected for 
the particular purpose by the turns of their own 
minds, and the conviction of their colleagues 
that they have a special fitness for the duty." 

Mr. Wm. T. Ellis, who made a special in- £fc$5?? ent 
vestigation of missionary work in 1907, 
wrote from Japan: "My own observation 
leads me to conclude that independent mis- 
sions make more stir in the homeland, 
where the money is being raised, than they do 
here. They are usually temporary, since 
they depend upon one man. . . . The only 
effectual missionary work that can be pursued 
is that conducted on a broad basis and a long- 
continued plan by the great Churches of Japan 
and of Christian lands." 

It is neither safe nor businesslike for the Enterprise 
Church to leave such an undertaking to out- 
siders. The Lord's work as well as man's 
work calls for business methods. The Church 
must take up this matter itself. It must form 
some responsible agency, whose outlook is 
over the whole field, and through which indi- 
viduals and churches may work collectively 
and to the best advantage; some lens which 
shall gather up all the scattered rays of local 
effort and focus them where they are needed ; 



34 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



as to 
Administration 



some institution which, though "men may come 
and men may go," shall itself "go on forever." 
Agreement 1 Upon the necessity of a central administra- 
organizations tion * or forei g" n missionary enterprise all re- 
ligious bodies are agreed. And in all large 
missionary societies there is substantial agree- 
ment in important matters. Those with which 
we are most concerned as Churchmen are the 
two great societies within the Church of Eng- 
land and the Domestic and Foreign Missionary 
Society which is our own Church in America 
in its organized missionary capacity. 
MiLion Board * n l 7 01 > largely through the efforts of the 
Rev. Thomas Bray, Commissary of the Bishop 
of London in Virginia, The Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts 
was formed within the Church of England to 
minister among settlers in the North American 
colonies, and to plant the Church among the 
native tribes that surrounded them. For al- 
most a century it sent missionaries throughout 
the American colonies, founding churches, 
ministering to scattered groups of Church peo- 
ple, and urging the Church of England to send 
Bishops to organize the work and to bring order 
and discipline into the missions. At the time of 
the American Revolution, almost all the clergy 
of our Church were missionaries of the S. P. 
G., and that Society had expended $2,000,000 
for missions in America. 



Foreign Missionary Administration 35 



Work among the Indians was begun early, Amin^iSdlans 
but because of the recurring warfare and the 
consequent prejudice against missionary work 
on the part of both Indian and colonist this part 
of the original plan was postponed so far as 
the United States was concerned. 

The Society entered Central America in 1784 iSSSd 8 
and Western Africa in 1752. It is of special in- 
terest to us to note that the Rev. Thomas 
Thompson, the missionary of the S. P. G. in 
Monmouth County, New Jersey, volunteered 
for service in Africa in 1752 and was the first 
missionary to the Guinea Coast. Australia was 
reached in 1793; the East Indies in 1820, and 
other British colonies as they were established 
from time to time. North China was entered 
in 1863 and Japan in 1873. 

The Society has been spreading and strength- 
ening its work ever since. In 1907 it had 
2,440 stations; 905 foreign missionaries, of 
whom 640 are ordained, 207 ordained natives, 
and 84,000 communicants.- Its receipts from 
contributions in 1908 were $933,065. 

The Church Missionary Society for Africa JjutJioSxyF 
and the East was founded in 1799, its founders Societ y 
saying: "As the S. P. C. K. and the S. P. G. 
confine their labors to the British plantations 
in America and the West Indies, there seems 
to be still wanting in the established Church 
a Society for sending missionaries to the con- 



Present 
Summary 



36 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



tinent of Africa and other parts of the heathen 
world." Therefore "the persons present at this 
meeting do form a Society for that purpose." 
fSS^°* I n ^53 at a general meeting the "Policy of 
Announced p a ith" was formally announced as follows: 
"The Committee state in the presence of this 
vast meeting and before the Church at large, 
their willingness to accept any number of true 
missionaries who may appear to be called of 
God to the work. They will send out any 
number, trusting to the Lord of the harvest, 
whose is the silver and the gold, to supply their 
treasury with the funds for this blessed and 
glorious undertaking." 
ForuTnll ^his "Policy of Faith," enunciated in 1853, 
afterward forgotten; abandoned entirely in 
1865, with the result of seven years' famine; 
partially acted upon in 1874- 1876, and dropped 
in 1877, with financial difficulties resulting; 
adopted as a new thing in 1887, showed in the 
following seven years the doubling of the mis- 
sion staff, the payment of all expenses and the 
payment of a £20,000 mortgage, and was re- 
affirmed in 1902. 

The Church Missionary Society began the 
work of its principal missions in the following 
order: West Africa, 1804; India, 1813; New 
Zealand, 18 14; Indians in British North Amer- 
ica, 1822 ; China, 1844; Palestine, 1851 ; Japan, 
1859 ; and Uganda, 1876. The Society in 1907 



c. M. s. 

Development 



Foreign Missionary Administration 37 

had 861 foreign missionaries, 8,131 ordained 
native workers and 97,489 communicants. 

Preparations for the Domestic and Foreign 
Missionary Society of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church in the United 
States of America 

The missionary obligation was recognized by M*s!? n 0mestic 
the General Convention in 1789 by "An Act of Movements 
the General Convention'' for supporting mis- 
sionaries to preach the gospel in the frontiers of 
the United States, with annual sermons and 
offerings for this purpose. No immediate ac- 
tion was taken by the Church as a whole to 
carry out this resolution; but local missionary 
societies were organized: The Committee for 
the Propagation of the Gospel in New York 
State was formed toward the end of the 18th 
century, and Philander Chase, afterwards our 
pioneer western Bishop, was one of the earliest 
missionaries. In 18 12, the Society for the 
Advancement of Christianity in Pennsylvania 
was formed largely through the efforts of the 
Rev. Jackson Kemper. In 181 6 the Protestant 
Episcopal Missionary Society of Pennsylvania 
was founded, and was the first organization to 
work beyond the limits of its State. 

In 1816, the Rev. Joseph Andrus volunteered ?ndtho c c. t &. s. 



38 Why and How of Foreign Missions 

for foreign missionary service, and in this con- 
nection Bishop Griswold and others proposed 
that he be sent to Ceylon by the C. M. S. and 
be supported by a society in the United States 
to be organized as a branch of the C. M. S. 
The Secretary of the C. M. S. replied, in 181 7 : 
"The Committee have thought that the most 
effectual way of raising the missionary zeal in 
America would be the formation of a Church 
Missionary Society in the Episcopal Church in 
the United States, which however small in be- 
ginning might ultimately so increase as to pro- 
duce the most extensive good. Should the 
formation of an American Episcopal Mission- 
ary Society be accomplished, the Committee of 
the Church Missionary Society authorize you 
to draw on me for the sum of Two Hundred 
Pounds to encourage the contributions of the 
friends of the Episcopal Church and the com- 
munity at large." In accordance with these 
suggestions, in 1820, a Committee of the 
Protestant Episcopal Missionary Society of 
Pennsylvania, composed of the Revs, Messrs. 
Kemper, Muhlenberg, and Boyd, urged the for- 
mation of a general missionary society of the 
whole Episcopal Church to work in the two 
fields, the foreign and domestic. As a result of 
these and other influences, at a special meeting 
of the General Convention in 1821, the Do- 
mestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the 



Foreign Missionary Administration 39 



Protestant Episcopal Church in the United 
States of America was organized. 

Our debt to the S. P. G. was not forgotten g^f?^ and 
on this occasion by Bishop White, who, as 
spokesman for the Board of Directors, pro- 
claimed to the American Church that, "We 
stand in a relation to our brethren in the new 
states not unlike that which before the revolu- 
tion the Episcopal population in the Atlantic 
provinces stood toward their parent Church in 
England. What was then the conduct of that 
Church toward the forefathers of those who 
are now invited to imitate them in their benefi- 
cence ? It was that she extended her fostering 
care to persons in their migration to the then 
uncultivated wilderness of the new world, and 
that she organized a society in which the pre- 
lates took the lead, being sustained by the most 
distinguished of the clergy of the whole realm." 

The missionary example and help of the 
S. P. G. in the past and the active interest of 
the C. M. S. in the formation of the Domestic 
and Foreign Missionary Society have linked, 
with gratitude, all our mission work with that 
of the Church of England. 

The Society's first Constitution declared that, ? h h e e | h ur e ch y is 
"It shall be composed of the Bishops of the Missionary 
Protestant Episcopal Church and the members Ca P acit y 
of the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies of 
the General Convention of the said Church for 



Grateful Bonds 



40 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



the time being, and of such other persons as 
shall contribute by subscription three dollars or 
more annually to the objects of the institution 
during the continuance of such contributions, 
and of such as shall contribute at once thirty 
dollars, which contributions shall constitute 
them members for life. Members who pay 
fifty dollars on subscribing shall be denomi- 
nated patrons of the Society." It will be seen 
that the new Society being created by and 
composed of the official representatives of the 
whole Church was essentially that Church act- 
ing in its missionary capacity. The full reali- 
zation of this fact came gradually. 
who P ie e chu?lh ^ ^ rst t ^ ie Church provided for the joining 
Membership f its Missionary Society by the payment of 
contributions or dues, and did not fully rec- 
ognize its obligation to send out into the mis- 
sion field Bishops as its representatives, fully 
qualified to act for the Church in the organiza- 
tion of new centers of corporate Christian life. 
But the conviction of the essential identity of 
the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society 
with the Church grew, and in the memorable 
Convention of 1835, Article II of the Con- 
stitution was changed to read, "The Society 
shall be considered as comprehending all per- 
sons who are members of the Church." 
superv?s/on of This realization of the true membership of 
the missionary society was paralleled by the 



New Fields 



Foreign Missionary Administration 41 



recognition of the fact that it is the business of 
the whole Church to send Bishops to mission 
fields instead of waiting for the formation of 
missions and their growth in strength and 
number sufficient to organize a diocese. The 
General Convention therefore elected the Rev. 
Jackson Kemper as Missionary Bishop of Mis- 
souri and Indiana, with jurisdiction in the 
Northwest. This included everything west of 
the Ohio except Michigan and Illinois. 

Sixteen years before Bishop Chase had been support 6 ° f 
elected Bishop of Ohio and two years before Reco e ni * ed 
James Otey had been made Bishop of Ten- 
nessee by conventions of five presbyters and a 
few laymen. Both had been consecrated and 
had supported themselves and their work as 
best they eould. The General Convention of 
1835 recognized this condition to have been 
an anomaly to the extent of voting to* recognize 
the consecration and dioceses of these Bishops 
and to take some financial responsibility for 
their work. 

The same Convention sent the Rev. Henry Snd^ftak^n^ 
Lockwood and the Rev. Francis R. Hansen to 
China as the first foreign missionaries, rec- 
ognizing still further the world-wide responsi- 
bility of the whole Church. 

In 1904 a still further recognition of the Direction 
Church as the one divinely constituted mission- 
ary organization was given when the Church 



42 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



decided to elect for herself at each General 
Convention executive heads of the Domestic 
and Foreign Missionary Society in the persons 
of its General Secretary and its Treasurer. 

"i. There shall be a Board of Missions for 
the purpose of exercising the administrative 
functions of the Society, the members of which 
shall be triennially chosen and appointed by the 
General Convention of the Church. 

"2. The Presiding Bishop shall be ex officio 
the President of the Board of Missions. Fifteen 
other Bishops, fifteen Presbyters, and fifteen 
Laymen shall complete the active membership 
of the Board. The Board thus constituted 
shall exercise all the corporate powers of the 
Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society; its 
members shall remain in office until their suc- 
cessors are chosen, and they shall have power 
to fill any vacancies that may occur in their 
number, save when a vacancy occurs within 
three months of a meeting of the General Con- 
vention. 

"3. The Board of Missions shall elect a Vice- 
President, who, in the absence of the President, 
ex officio, shall preside at all meetings. 

"4. The Bishops of this Church, other than 
those chosen for active membership, shall be 
honorary members of the Board, with all the 
rights and privileges of the elected members, 
except the right to vote." 



Foreign Missionary Administration 43 



The majority of the members of a board Board Members 

J t J Necessarily 

usually live in or near the city in which the Localized 
board is located, because "experience has 
proved that a few men, each of whom can be 
easily reached,, all of whom have a vital in- 
terest in the trusts confided to them, will per- 
form any given labor more efficiently than a 
large board whose members are so diffused as 
to be seldom collected, or as to forget the claims 
of a duty whose immediate field is far away." 

But though the members of a board are lag° a n cfou n s d 
chosen from one part of the country, they are Boa^ds rs ° f 
not sectional in spirit. There are no wiser min- 
isters in the country than those who are on our 
boards of foreign missions. There are no more 
sagacious business men than the lay members 
of those boards. Those who< sneer at mission 
boards forget that they are composed not only 
of distinguished clergymen, but of bank presi- 
dents, successful merchants, railroad directors, 
great lawyers, managers of large corporations 
— men who in the commercial world are recog- 
nized as authorities and are implicitly trusted. 
Is their judgment of less value when they deal 
with the extension of the kingdom of God? 

Bishop Francis was a missionary in Japan ^£^ e ™r|™ f 
for many years. Admiral Mahan was trained Missions 
in international questions and familiar with 
conditions in the Orient. Two other members 
of the Board and the General Secretary have 



44 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



recently visited the Far East, and the general 
policy of the Board encourages such trips for 
its secretaries. Mr. George C. Thomas re- 
signed from the banking firm of Drexel and 
Company, in order to continue his Church work 
when forbidden by his physician to do both. 
Lawyers and business men, rectors of large 
parishes, and prominent Bishops give their 
valuable time and pay all their own travel- 
ing expenses to attend the meetings of the 
Board in New York. This is no small item, if 
a man comes from Chicago, St. Paul, or other 
distant points, 
■ificing These men devote much time and labor to 
the affairs of the Board, leaving their own 
work, often at great inconvenience, to attend 
board and committee meetings, earnestly and 
prayerfully considering the things that pertain 
to this sacred cause. Yet they receive no com- 
pensation whatever, freely giving the Church 
the benefit of their ripe experience and business 
capacity. It would be necessary to pay a large 
sum to command their services for any other 
cause, if indeed they could be commanded at 
all. One of them has said: "I could not be 
hired to do this work for $5,000 a year, but I 
will do it gratuitously for the sake of Christ 
and my brethren." The Church owes much to 
the Board. Its members are unselfishly and 
self-sacrificingly administering the great trust 



Foreign Missionary Administration 45 



Duties Denned 



that has been committed to them, and though 
they may make occasional mistakes, their loy- 
alty, devotion, and intelligence are a reasonable 
guaranty that they will wisely serve the cause 
that is as dear to them as to others. 

The Church in its General Convention elects om^s^ the 
the General Secretary and the Treasurer. They ^™f g s * ic and 
nominate their respective assistants to the ^^ t ° y nary 
Board of Missions for election as follows : The 
Associate, Corresponding, and Educational 
Secretaries, and the Assistant Treasurer. 

The principal duties of these officers are de- 
fined by the by-laws as follows, in Article II : 

"The General Secretary shall be the Execu- tl^SLy 
tive Officer of the Board; to superintend its 
operations, to collect and give information in 
regard to its work, to devise and recommend 
plans of operation, and, in general, to execute 
the purposes of the Board in his proper sphere, 
submitting all his measures, before their adop- 
tion for its approval, except that in cases of 
emergency he may act with the approval of 
the Advisory Committee, all such action to be 
reported to the Board at its next meeting. 

"The Associate Secretary shall assist the Gen- sewe^y 
eral Secretary in his work and under him have 
charge of the office of the Board, attending to 
all the details of the same. He shall carefully 
preserve the minutes and records of the Board, 
and deliver them to his successor, and perform 



46 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



Corresponding 
Secretary 



Educational 
Secretary 



Treasurer and 

Assistant 

Treasurer 



such other duties as may be assigned to him. 
He shall be the custodian of the seal of the 
Society, and when authorized to do so, by reso- 
lution of the Board of Missions, shall affix the 
seal to any document and prove the same. 

"The Corresponding Secretary shall assist 
the General Secretary in his work, shall have 
charge of the correspondence of the Board 
under his direction, and shall edit such publica- 
tions as the Society may authorize, with such 
assistance as the Board may, from time to time, 
determine to be necessary, and also fulfil the 
duties of the Associate Secretary in the case of 
his absence. He shall present the cause of 
missions as he may be directed to do by the 
Board of Missions or the General Secretary, 
with a view of awakening interest in the mis- 
sionary work of the Church. 

"The Educational Secretary shall assist the 
General Secretary in his work; shall organize 
and direct mission study classes and prepare 
courses of study for the same. He shall present 
the cause of missions as he may be directed to 
do by the Board of Missions or the General 
Secretary, with a view to awakening interest 
in the missionary work of the Church." 

The duties of the Treasurer and Assistant 
Treasurer are carefully detailed in the By-laws. 
They are such as are customary, and every 
precaution is required of them which will safe- 



Foreign Missionary Administration 47 



guard the keeping and the payment of funds in 
accordance with the action of the Board of 
Missions. It is also provided that, "The Treas- 
urer shall present to the Board monthly a full 
and accurate account of the receipts and dis- 
bursements, and of the state of the Treasury." 
This report is always accompanied by a writ- 
ten certificate as to its accuracy from a public 
auditor not connected with the Society. 

"The offices of one of our great societies are offi n c f e wc 
as busy a hive of workers as any financial or 
mercantile institution. Receipts of sums vary- 
ing from a few cents to thousands of dollars, 
and in many cases aggregating over a million, 
are recorded, acknowledged, cared for; ac- 
counts are kept with every variety of manu- 
facturer and merchant; payments are made 
through the great banking houses of Europe 
and Asia to thousands of agents in every coun- 
try, American and foreign; correspondence 
affecting not merely the spiritual but temporal 
welfare of thousands upon thousands of people, 
is carefully considered and filed away for refer- 
ence at any moment; books are published in 
widely different languages; large investments 
in real estate and in buildings are made ; diplo- 
matic questions, sometimes of immense im- 
portance, are considered. In fact, there is prob- 
ably no other organization in the world, except 
a national government, that carries on so varied 



48 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



When the 
Board of 
Missions Meets 



Standing 
Committees 



Method of Work 



The Board 
Meeting 



and as important lines of business as does a 
foreign missionary society." 1 

On the second Tuesday of every month 
(with three exceptions) the offices at the Mis- 
sion House are filled all the morning with mem- 
bers of the Board meeting with their respective 
standing committees, to consider and prepare 
the business of the Society and the requests of 
its missionaries, for rapid and intelligent con- 
sideration by the Board of Missions at its ses- 
sion in the afternoon. 

There are ten Standing Committees, namely : 
An Advisory Committee, Committees on Trust 
Funds, on Domestic Missions, on China and 
Japan, on Africa and Hayti, on Porto Rico, 
Honolulu, The Philippine Islands, Mexico, 
Brazil and Cuba, on Work Among the Negroes, 
on Missionary Meetings, on Mission Study and 
Mission Study Literature, and a Committee on 
Audit and Finance. 

Each committee at its meetings has before it 
all letters received since the previous Board 
meeting which come within its scope. One of 
the Secretaries of the Board meets with each 
committee to give further information if de- 
sired, and each committee reports and recom- 
mends resolutions on such matters as require 
the action of the Board. 

In the afternoon members of all committees 



!Dr. Edwin M. Bliss. 



Foreign Missionary Administration 49 



meet as the Board of Missions to receive and 
act upon the reports of committees. The chair- 
man of each committee in presenting its report 
is ready and is frequently asked to give further 
particulars and reasons for the resolutions 
presented. 

The dioceses and missionary districts of the 
United States of America have been grouped 
into eight departments, to secure a more com- 
plete cooperation between the Board of Mis- 
sions and the Church in various sections of the 
country. The Department has power to or- 
ganize a Missionary Council auxiliary to the 
Board of Missions, composed of all the Bishops 
officially resident within the Department, and 
of four clerical and four lay representatives 
elected by each of the several dioceses and mis- 
sionary districts within the department. Each 
department may select a representative other 
than the Department Secretary, who shall have 
the right to attend all meetings of the Board of 
Missions with the privileges of the floor, but 
without the right to vote. It has the right to 
promote the holding of missionary meetings 
and to take all such measures to foster mis- 
sionary interests within the department as are 
not inconsistent with the Constitution and 
Canons of the General Convention or of any 
diocese or missionary district within the de- 
partment. 



50 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



seSeSSSf Each < department has the right through its 
Council to elect, subject to the approval of the 
Board of Missions, a Department Secretary, 
whose compensation is fixed and paid by the 
Board. He holds office during its pleasure, and 
works under its direction. 
Auxiliaries I* 1 the early history of the Domestic and 
of the Board F ore ig n Missionary Society, much of the time 
of the Secretaries was given to the work of 
organizing local auxiliary societies of men and 
women. Among the earliest of these, the So- 
ciety's Annual Report mentions eleven local 
auxiliaries, eight of which were "Female Mis- 
sionary Auxiliaries." Diocesan societies in the 
interest of different parts of the mission field 
were formed later. 
A^xmanf In 1 87 1 the Woman's Auxiliary was created 
by the General Convention, as a general auxili- 
ary to the Board of Missions. The several 
diocesan societies became its branches, and 
other branches were formed, until now every 
diocese and missionary district has its or- 
ganized branch. Its purpose to promote prayer, 
study, work, and giving for missions has been 
well fulfilled, and its strength can be inferred 
from the fact that in 1907 its Triennial United 
Offering, which is given over and above its 
regular work and gifts, amounted to $224,000. 
Apartment of In 1 889 the General Convention, sitting as 
Au%ma°ry an ' s the Board of Missions, authorized the Junior 



Foreign Missionary Administration 51 



Department of the Woman's' Auxiliary to en- 
list the children and young people of the Church 
in missionary service. Manual work, mission 
study, intercessory prayer, securing volunteers, 
and systematic giving are emphasized. 

Organized in i860 as an independent So- chSr^h 16 " 05 " 1 
ciety, the American Church Missionary Society ary 
became an auxiliary of the Domestic and For- 
eign Missionary Society in 1877, and in 1906 
turned over to it the work in Cuba and Brazil. 

In October, 1898, the Sunday schools con- 
tributing to the Lenten Offering were recog- I£h oi mday 
nized as the Sunday School Auxiliary to the £the Board 
Board of Missions. Its gifts are made chiefly of Missions 
during Lent, when special mite boxes are dis- 
tributed for the purpose. Many schools, how- 
ever, begin their offering in Advent, and some 
keep adding to it throughout the year. Mis- 
sionary instruction during the Sunday school 
session and at other times, the circulating of 
missionary books, pamphlets, and the Chil- 
dren's Number of The Spirit of Missions, are 
the methods used to develop interest in the 
offering. The amounts given each year have 
increased remarkably. In 1878, the first offer- 
ing was $7,000; in 1894, the seventeenth 
offering was $59,000; in 1902, the twenty-fifth 
offering was $110,000; in 1908, the thirty-first 
offering was $137,000, which was given by 
3,801 schools. 



52 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



The Foreign 
Mission Fields 
Occupied 



Fields First 

Opened by 

American 

Church 

Missionary 

Society 



Workers of the 
Domestic and 
Foreign 
Missionary 
Society in 1908 



Careful 

Financial 

Methods 



A Sacred Trust 



Foreign countries were occupied by the 
Church through the Domestic and Foreign 
Missionary Society as follows: Greece, 1830- 
1898; Crete, 1837-1843; Persia, 1835-1850; 
Texas (then a foreign country), 1838-1845; 
South America, 1859-1864, and from 1906 to 
the present time. Africa was entered in 1835, 
China in 1835, Japan in 1859, and Haiti in 
1865. 

The American Church Missionary Society 
entered Cuba in 1888, Brazil in 1889, Haiti in 
1 86 1 ; and after doing a valuable work, in 1865 
turned over to the Domestic and Foreign Mis- 
sionary Society, for its administration, the 
Haitian work, and the work in Cuba and Brazil 
in 1905. 

There were in the year 1908, 248 foreign 
missionaries, of whom 76 had been ordained, 
and also 818 native workers, of whom 131 were 
ordained, and in all the 371 stations there were 
11,170 communicants. 

In the handling of money great care is taken. 
Xot only is every dollar received promptly 
acknowledged to the giver, but a public report 
is made in the annual report and copies are 
freely given to any who request them. 

The majority of the members and officers 
of the Board are or have been rectors, and 
the others are members and contributing lay 
officers of churches. They know, therefore, 



Foreign Missionary Administration 53 



apart from the board's correspondence, that 
the money they receive comes, not only from 
the rich, but from the poor; that it includes 
the widow's mite, the workingman's hard- 
earned wage, and that it is followed on its 
mission of blessing by the prayers of loving 
hearts. So the board regards that money as 
a sacred thing, a trust to be expended with 
more than ordinary care. 

Some expenditure for administration is, of Expenditure 011 
course, indispensable. The work could not indispensable 
be carried on without it, for a board must 
have offices and the facilities for doing its work. 
The scale of administration is largely deter- 
mined by the ideas of the Church which the 
board represents and the work that it is re- 
quired to do. It is hardly fair to cite the low 
administrative expense of certain independent 
agencies, for they do not assume such responsi- 
bilities for the maintenance of their mission- 
aries as the Church boards. The churches want 
their missionaries adequately supported for a 
life-work, and that involves an administrative 
agency commensurate in expensiveness with 
the obligations that must be assumed. Still, the 
cost of administration of the great mission 
boards is surprisingly low. The exact percent- 
age varies, as some have free rentals and un- 
paid agents, and as the cost of stimulating the 
churches is not always considered administra- 



54 Why and How of Foreign Missions 

tive. In general, it may be said that the 
amount for administration proper ranges from 
five to eight per cent. That is, it takes but 
little more than the value of a foreign postage 
stamp to send a dollar to Asia or Africa. 
Lo^cost; -'■ s there an y mercantile concern doing a great 
business and requiring the services of a large 
number of persons scattered all over the world, 
whose percentage of expenditure for adminis- 
tration is so low ? Professor Henry van Dyke 
once made inquiries of several large corpora- 
tions, railway, manufacturing, and mercantile, 
and he found that the average cost of adminis- 
tration was 12.75 P er cent, while in one great 
establishment it rose to tw T enty per cent. The 
manager of one of the large department stores 
in New York told me that his expense for ad- 
ministration was twenty-two per cent, and he 
expressed astonishment that the board's cost 
was only about one quarter of that. The cases 
are not entirely parallel; but after making all 
reasonable allowance for differences, the essen- 
tial fact remains that the cost of missionary 
administration is remarkably low. About nine- 
ty-five cents out of every dollar go to the 
work in some form. Dr. John Hall, of New 
York, once said : "I have been closely con- 
nected with the work for more than a quarter 
of a century, and I do not hesitate to say that 
it would be difficult to find elsewhere as much 



Foreign Missionary Administration 55 



work done at so moderate a cost as in our mis- 
sion boards." 

It is more difficult than many might £ f U D S ebt n 
imagine to manage a great board so as to avoid 
debt. The work, being conducted on so large 
a scale and over so vast a territory, cannot be 
hurriedly adjusted to financial changes in the 
United States. It has been gradually developed 
through a long series of years, and must from 
its nature be stable. A board cannot end its 
work with the year and begin the next year on 
a different basis. It operates in distant lands, 
some so remote that from four to six months 
are required for the mere interchange of letters. 
Plans and pledges must therefore be made far 
in advance. In these circumstances, it is not 
easy to forecast the future ; but the boards must 
do so, or try to. 

Moreover, missionaries are sent out for a IX^Toward 
life service. They cannot be discharged at any Missionaries 
time, as a merchant discharges a clerk. True, 
the board reserves the right of recall; but it 
justly feels that it should not exercise it, save 
for serious cause in the missionary himself. 
Foreign missionaries, too, are not situated like 
home missionaries — among people of their own 
race, with partially self-supporting congrega- 
tions behind them, and with larger churches 
within call, in case their board fails them. They 
are thousands of miles away, among different 



56 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



and often hostile races, and with usually no 
local resource. In such circumstances, the 
board simply cannot abandon them. It must 
pay their salaries and pay them promptly; and 
it does so. The boards have retrenched in 
many other ways, but the foreign missionary 
has received his full salary, and that, too, the 
very day it was due. We believe that the home 
churches will sustain the boards in that policy, 
that they do not want them to send a forlorn 
hope into Asia and Africa, and then desert it. 
This policy, however, while only just to the 
missionaries, involves risk to the boards. 
f n i c nc^me ty Another difficulty experienced by the boards 
is the uncertainty of income. The churches 
will not pay in advance. The average church 
does not even make pledges, and has no ade- 
quate system of raising money. The tide of 
beneficence ebbs and flows in the most startling 
ways, and of course the board is often in danger 
of debt. 

Reserve To meet payments in the early months of the 

Deposits r * J 

fiscal year when the contributions are light and 
when the appropriations must be paid in regu- 
lar amounts every month a fund for reserve 
deposits was given and set aside in order that 
the board might thus be spared the necessity 
of borrowing money, which had been found 
unavoidable until these reserves were estab- 
lished. As an illustration, in the first six 



Foreign Missionary Administration 57 



months of 1908 the appropriations were $520,- 
000, while the contributions were only $237,- 
000, and the Reserve Deposits were provided 
to help tide over such a period. Suppose some 
unforeseen emergency had occurred in the last 
two months to diminish the gifts that were nor- 
mally expected at that period — a financial 
panic, a Saint Louis flood, or a San Francisco 
earthquake — debt would have been inevitable 
but for this fund. 

The Bishops, as the leaders in the field, must 
have a definite assurance from the Board of 
Missions of the amount of money they may 
expect for their work during each missionary 
year — September 1 to August 31. In May of 
each year the Board of Missions makes its ap- 
propriations for the year beginning with the 
next September. That is, it notifies each 
Bishop of the amount it has assigned for the 
support of workers and the extension of the 
work in his diocese or district. Appropria- 
tions once made by the Board have all the value 
of promissory notes. The offerings of the year 
may be insufficient to pay them, but the Board 
must make good its promises. In 1908 the 
Board made appropriations as follows : 

1. At Home — To 42 dioceses and 22 mis- 
sionary districts, with a total staff of 1,195 
workers. 

2. Abroad — To 9 missionary districts, with 



58 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



a total staff of 248 Americans and other for- 
eigners and 818 native helpers. 

The appropriations for work at home and 
abroad during the year September 1, 1908, to 
August 31, 1909, were $1,076,520.31. 
len^pfaT 1011 " The Board of Missions does not divide 
money that has already been given. It is 
obliged to make appropriations in the expecta- 
tion and hope that the amount it guarantees to 
the Bishops will be given through it, by the 
congregations all over the country. In order 
that each congregation may know its share of 
the support of our missions, the General Con- 
vention in San Francisco in October, 1901, in- 
structed the Board of Missions to divide the 
missionary budget each year among the dio- 
ceses and districts. This is known as the Ap- 
portionment Plan. 
Apportionment -*- n or ^ r to determine the share of each dio- 
sMade cese j- ne Board of Missions ascertains, from the 
diocesan journal, the average of the total re- 
ceipts of all the congregations in the diocese for 
five years. The dioceses are then grouped into 
classes. Then the dioceses in each class are 
asked to give a certain percentage of their total 
receipts, the wealthiest dioceses giving the 
largest percentage, usually $ T / 2 per cent. The 
dioceses in each succeeding class give smaller 
percentages of their total receipts and so on 
down the list to the poorer dioceses whose total 



Foreign Missionary Administration 59 



receipts are less than $50,000. They give the 
smallest percentage, usually 2^ per cent. The 
diocesan authorities are then expected to 
divide these smaller amounts among the con- 
gregations, and the clergyman in charge of each 
congregation is asked to make known the 
amount suggested as the congregational offer- 
ing, so that every member of every congrega- 
tion in the country may know just how much 
the congregation is asked to give, in order that 
the Church's Mission may be adequately main- 
tained. 

The apportionment is not a tax or an assess- Apportionment 
ment. Neither is it intended to be taken as a 
measure of the giving ability of any diocese or 
congregation. It is simply an endeavor to 
divide fairly among all members of the Church 
an expense common to all. Many congrega- 
tions are able to give more than their apportion- 
ment and take pride in doing so. 

In 1908 the offerings for missions from |chiev«ments 
congregations were $241,000 larger than in XppSrtiwment 
1901. The total of contributions from parishes Plan 
and individuals under the Apportionment Plan, 
during the seven years in which it has been in 
use has been very largely increased and the 
figures are about double those of seven years 
ago. In 1 90 1 they were $235,993.81. In 1907 
they were $466,976.75. In 1908 they were 
$477,322.58, or a gain the past year of $10,- 



6o Why and How of Foreign Missions 



345.83; or a gain as compared with 1901 of 
$241,328.77. In the seven years also the num- 
ber of contributing parishes has more than 
doubled. In 1902, the first year of the Appor- 
tionment, eight dioceses and ten missionary dis- 
tricts completed their apportionments; a total 
of eighteen. In 1908 twenty-one dioceses and 
twenty-six missionary districts completed their 
apportionments ; a total of forty-seven. 
R^Iatf/to The perplexities of administration are great- 

special objects ly i ncreased \> y the special object system. The 

basal reason for giving should not, of course, 
lie in a particular person or institution, but in 
the considerations that were stated in the chap- 
ter on 'The Foreign Missionary Motive. ,, 
However, giving to objects aside from the au- 
thorized work by the boards themselves can be 
so safeguarded as to be helpful. It often makes 
the cause concrete and strengthens the sense of 
responsibility for its maintenance. The inclina- 
tions of earnest and friendly people to main- 
tain the work by special object giving should 
not be indiscriminately opposed, but wisely 
guided. Within proper limits, they may be 
made to subserve wise ends. 
G?ftsT s tro1 Constituents and missionaries should under- 
stand that the object of the boards in desiring 
to control gifts is simply in the interest of the 
work : that they wish to have the Lord's money 
used to the best advantage, and that they have 



Desirable 



Foreign Missionary Administration 61 



no disposition to alter the direction of a desig- 
nated gift, but only to safeguard the interests 
of the cause and to provide for emergencies and 
for necessary changes. 

The perplexities of special object giving are ^Budget* 8 
increased by the disposition of many people to 
give to objects outside of the authorized budget. 
Bishops with their councils of advice carefully 
consider the work that should be done and for- 
ward their estimates to the board. On the 
basis of these estimates, the board makes "the 
regular grants/' pledging in them the largest 
sum that there appears to be a reasonable prob- 
ability will be received. Plainly, therefore, the 
first duty of givers, if they would truly serve 
the work, is toward these grants, since they 
include the objects which the missionaries 
themselves have decided to be of first import- 
ance. Therefore, to demand that money shall 
be applied to some other purpose is virtually 
to insist upon giving to the less, rather than 
to the more important work. 

"It is a singular fact/' observes Dr. E. E. 
Strong, "that so many donors fancy that they 
can get information as to the best use to be 
made of their gifts through individual appeals, 
rather than by taking the united judgment of 
the missionaries on the ground and the execu- 
tive committees at home." The effort to evan- 
gelize the world must not degenerate into a 



62 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



sporadic and spasmodic individualism. A 
board cannot spend $50,000 this year on a 
mission which has happened to have several 
good speakers at home on furlough, and $30,- 
000 the next year because the furloughed mis- 
sionaries from that field were ill or ineffective 
on the platform. The scale on which money 
should be expended in a given field cannot be 
wholly determined by the amount of money 
offered for it, or the varying degree of success 
which a missionary may have in presenting it 
to home audiences, or the newspaper articles 
that may happen to interest a reader; but it 
must be decided by the relative needs of that 
field, the funds that are available for the whole 
enterprise, and the policy that has been adopted 
by the board. Otherwise, demoralizing ele- 
ments of uncertainty and inequality are in- 
troduced. 

perplexities There are, moreover, administrative per- 

and Dangers \ . \ 

plexities involved m such excessively special- 
ized giving. Suppose a citizen should refuse 
to contribute toward the expenses of his com- 
munity unless his money could be applied to the 
grading of the street in front of his house, or 
to the salary of the teacher who instructs his 
children. How could the administration of 
any municipality be conducted, if each man in- 
sisted on having some particular item of city 
expenditure assigned to him ? The donor does 



Foreign Missionary Administration 63 



not usually suspect the difficulties in his selec- 
tion of a special object. He naturally chooses 
the most attractive phases of the work, while 
others less attractive but equally important are 
ignored. 

Whenever for personal association or other contributions 
reasons any one asks the Board of Missions to 
send a gift to some missionary or some par- 
ticular object not already supported by an ap- 
propriation of the Board, or when the giver 
wishes to send an additional gift to some person 
or object receiving an appropriation from the 
Board, which shall be over and above whatever 
appropriation is received, this extra gift is 
called a "Special." 

"Specials" do not apply on the apportion- How Applied 
ment, since the Board of Missions cannot use 
special gifts to pay the appropriations, but must 
send them to the fields named by the donor, in 
addition to the appropriation. 

The Board of Missions provides for the c^ibSSons 
natural and proper wish of contributors to give 
to particular objects by assigning on request, 
some object already included within the An- 
nual Appropriation to an individual donor as 
his share of the obligation of the whole Church. 
They differ from specials in the fact that the 
gifts are for objects included in the budget of 
appropriations, and help the Church to meet 
the obligations it has assumed through its 



64 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



agent, the Board. Designated offerings are 
therefore properly credited to the parish or 
diocesan apportionment. Under this plan 
money is received, not for an individual scholar 
or patient or native worker, but for a share of 
the cost of a particular school or hospital or 
station. Larger gifts may be designated for 
the maintenance of an institution, or of an en- 
tire mission station. Arrangements of this 
character are made in consultation with the 
Corresponding Secretary, 
itlsfectfon Plans such as these are proving satisfactory 
alike to givers, the Board, and the missionaries. 
It allows a flexible use of mission funds in ac- 
cordance with the best judgment of the mission- 
aries and the changing necessities of the work, 
provides a support for all departments and not 
simply for a few, makes it possible to furnish 
adequate information, gives room for steady 
advance of interest and gifts, instead of fixing 
limits,, and insures the continuance of the gift 
to the permanent work uninfluenced by changes 
in personnel. 

of F M\nd SS Viewing missionary administration as a 
whole, there is undoubtedly occasional ground 
for criticism. Every board would admit that, 
in deciding a myriad of perplexing questions, 
many of them delicate and difficult and on 
which good men differ, some errors of judg- 
ment occur. The attitude of officers and mem- 



Foreign Missionary Administration 65 

bers should be one of openness of mind toward 
such modifications of policy or method as 
conditions may require. The fact that they did 
a thing last year is not a conclusive reason 
why they should do it next year. Emerson 
says that consistency is the virtue of small 
minds. We should do what we believe to be 
right before God to-day, whether or not it is 
what we did yesterday. The man who cannot 
change his mind, when conditions have 
changed, is not fit to be an administrator of 
a great enterprise. He is worse than a weak 
man, for the latter is amenable to advice, 
while the former is as inaccessible to reason as 
a mule. It is probable, however, that if any 
one were to make a list of the real defects in 
present administrative methods, he would read- 
ily learn on inquiry that the boards already 
know those defects and that they are earn- 
estly striving to remedy them. Dr. William 
N. Clarke expresses the following opinion : 

"The sharpest criticism usually comes from f n e d e Mutuai 
those who know the work only from the out- Desirable* 
side, and have no idea either of its real magni- 
tude or of the immense complications that it 
involves. Large parts of the work of mission- 
ary boards imply matters that are confidential 
in their nature. A certain amount of reserve is 
absolutely required by justice and by the in- 
terests of the work. Matters that can be openly 



66 Why and How of Foreign Missions 

discussed are often fully intelligible only to 
those who know great classes of surrounding 
facts. When a society or board is blamed about 
some occurrence on the foreign field, there is 
almost sure to be involved some personal matter 
in which prejudice for or against some one may 
easily mislead an outside judgment, and even 
in the inner circle a just and wise judgment 
requires the utmost caution. All administrative 
work is of course justly open to candid and 
reasonable criticism, and no missionary society 
expects or asks to escape it ; but there are con> 
paratively few persons who are thoroughly 
qualified to criticize the administration of the 
great missionary organizations except in a very 
general way. Even for those who have inti- 
mate knowledge enough to be capable of in- 
telligent criticism, it often proves far easier to 
see faults in the policy of the great societies 
than to propose radical improvements upon 
their general method of administration. It is a 
case where correction even of acknowledged 
faults, though it be ever so much desired, is 
often beset with unsuspected difficulty. Hence, 
the case is one that evidently calls for mutual 
confidence and loyal cooperation among those 
who are interested together in missions. . . . 
The fact ought to be taken more closely home 
to the popular Christian heart that a mission- 
ary society is conducting a work of exception- 



Foreign Missionary Administration 67 

al magnitude and difficulty, under conditions 
that render misjudgment of its doings ex- 
tremely easy; and that its officers deserve 
sympathetic and respectful judgment from all 
their brethren." 1 

All the boards are giving increasing atten- Dh-ectfon* 
tion to the principles of an intelligent and com- 
prehensive policy. They feel that the days of 
sentimentalism in foreign missions have passed. 
They are not conducting a crusade, but a set- 
tled campaign, and they are planning it with 
such skill and prudence as they possess. They 
study the broad principles of missions, read the 
lessons of twenty centuries of missionary effort, 
abandon plans that have been found defective 
and adopt new ones which promise better re- 
sults. Every year, the officers and representa- 
tives of about fifty boards of the United States 
and Canada meet for conference as to the best 
methods for carrying on missionary operations, 
and an amount of care and thought is given to 
the whole subject that would surprise the aver- 
age critic. The boards are earnestly trying to 
administer this great trust wisely, economic- 
ally, and effectively, and on sound business and 
scientific as well as religious principles. 

It will be seen from all that has been said of FSth 
that there is no ground for the assumption of 
some that the work of a Church board is not 



l A Study of Christian Missions, 128, 134, 135. 



68 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



a faith work. At the beginning of each year, 
the board makes and guarantees its appropri- 
ations solely on the faith that God will move 
the Church to provide the necessary money. 
Since he has ordained that this work shall be 
supported by the gifts of his people, it is fair 
to assume that he will bless them when they 
move unitedly and prayerfully for the accom- 
plishment of the chief work that he has laid 
upon them, and that he is quite as apt to guide 
the men whom the Church "looks out" as "of 
good report, full of the Spirit and of wisdom" 
and appoints "over this business," as he is to 
guide any independent agency or individual, 
however sincere or enthusiastic. 
Th^ough U praye? These men regard the work as of divine au- 
thority and of beneficent character. They 
reverently look to the Holy Spirit as the ad- 
ministrator of the enterprise, believing that 
their chief reliance must be upon his guidance. 
They realize that God is not limited to human 
methods, and that the failure of a cherished 
plan may not argue injury to the cause, but 
only defects in the plan. They feel that their 
only safety is to keep close to Christ and to 
seek to know his will. Prayer, therefore, be- 
gins and pervades all deliberations, and wings 
every appeal for funds. Heavy as are the anx- 
ieties and responsibilities, every board counts it 
an honor and a privilege to represent the 



Foreign Missionary Administration 69 



Church of God in the administration of this 
noblest of all Christian activities. 

QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER II 

Aim : To Understand the Machinery that has been 
Created by the Church for Carrying out its Aim 

1. How would foreign missionary work be con- 
ducted if we had no denominational mission- 
ary boards? 

2. Why would it not be possible at present to 
have a single board, representing the entire 
Christian Church? 

3. What would be the advantages of having each 
parish conduct its work on the foreign field 
directly, and separately? 

4. What would be the disadvantages of this ar- 
rangement ? 

5. How, in this case, would a missionary secure 
appointment, if his own congregation was un- 
able to send him out? 

6. How would the work on the field compare in 
equipment with that which is now conducted 
by the Board? 

7. Sum up all the advantages of denominational 
boards as effective missionary agencies, over 
separate congregations and independent so- 
cieties. 

8. Sum up the principal features of the work of 
the Board of Missions, considered as a business 
enterprise. 

9. How does it seem to you to compare in mag- 
nitude and difficulty with that of the other 
boards of the Church? 

10. What sort of men should be secured as secre- 
taries of boards of foreign missions? 



Why and How of Foreign Missions 

11. Name some of the principal subjects that 
board secretaries ought to be acquainted with. 

12. What kind of salaries should they receive? 

13. What are the arguments for increased economy 
in the administration of the Board of Missions? 

14. What are the arguments for larger expendi- 
ture? 

15. How is a board to advertise its work effective- 
ly, and yet escape the criticism of extrava- 
gance? 

16. What is the Apportionment and what has it 
done? 

17. What are the arguments for and against giving 
"Specials" for objects outside the budget? 

18. What is a "designated offering" ? 

19. Under what circumstances should missionaries 
on furlough be permitted to solicit money for 
their own work? 

20. What knowledge should a person have, in 
order to pass intelligent criticism on a board 
of foreign missions? 

21. What are the three principal difficulties, in the 
order of their importance, that boards have 
to meet? 

22. What ways can you suggest of meeting these 
difficulties? 

23. What is the part of the individual parish in the 
matter? 

24. What is the part of the individual Christian? 



QUALIFICATIONS AND 
APPOINTMENT 



The first point that I shall emphasize refers to your 
physical nature. You will want to take with you to 
your field of labor a sound, healthy, vigorous, and 
normally developed body. — George Scholl 

Let the most thoroughly disciplined faculties and 
the noblest powers of the Christian world be con- 
secrated to work of such a character. We do not plead 
for missionaries to go forth to teach science, but for 
missionaries who possess a scientific mind; not for 
men to proclaim or teach the philosophies of the world, 
but for men who have as a part of their equipment a 
philosophic mind. — S. H. Wainright 

In the first place, only a man whose mind is per- 
vaded by the immediate personal presence of the Holy 
Spirit can reveal Christ to those seeking him. The 
first great work which we have in any mission field is 
that of making Christ known to the people. 

— James M. Thoburn 

In the mission field abroad, as in fact at home, too, 
character counts for more than learning, for more 
than skill. Character, humanly speaking, is almost 
everything. — Eugene Stock 



72 



Ill 



QUALIFICATIONS AND 



APPOINTMENT 



r 




The critic who imagines that weaklings or 
milksops can be appointed, might apply for ap- 
pointment himself and see. Large churches, 
after spending a year or more in considering 
scores of highly recommended ministers, some- 
times give a unanimous call to an unworthy 
man. So a board occasionally errs. But as a 
rule, the rigorous methods now employed 
quickly reject incompetent candidates, while 
the increasing missionary interest in colleges 
and seminaries gives the choicest material to 
select from. The boards do not appoint the 
pale enthusiast or the romantic young lady to 
the foreign field, but the sturdy, practical, ener- 
getic man of affairs, the woman of poise and 
sense and character. It is not the policy to send 
a multitude of common men, but a compara- 
tively small number of picked men, the highest 
types of our Anglo-Saxon Christian character 
and culture. Imitating the example of the 
church at Antioch in setting apart as foreign 



73 



74 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



missionaries Paul and Barnabas, the modern 
Church selects the best that apply for this serv- 
ice. The result is that foreign missionaries are 
fast becoming a picked class, far above the 
average in intelligence, character, and devo- 
tion. 

rests imposed yy e wou j c j no t gi ve the impression that the 
boards insist upon an impracticable standard, 
nor should modesty deter any young man or 
woman from applying. The tests imposed are 
not merely scholastic. Sometimes the honor 
members of a graduating class have been re- 
jected and men of lesser academic distinction 
appointed, because investigation has shown 
that the latter gave better promise of real use- 
fulness. High grades sometimes coexist with 
serious defects of character. Many of the 
prize men of our colleges are never heard of in 
after life, while others, who, like General 
Grant, made no special mark as students, have 
developed splendid qualities. 

Qualifications ft ma y b e we u to indicate the qualifications 
that are required, not only for the guidance of 
young people who are contemplating applica- 
tion, but for the information of laymen who 
may not be familiar with the subject, and who 
often hear misleading statements regarding it. 
Health Foreign missionaries often live and work 
in such trying climates, amid such insanitary 
surroundings, exposed to such malignant dis- 



Qualifications and Appointment 75 

eases, and under such nervous strain, that only 
men and women of sound constitution and 
vigorous health should be appointed. It is im- 
portant therefore to ascertain whether one is 
free from physical defects or tendencies that 
might shorten life. This question is one to be 
determined, not by the applicant, but by a phy- 
sician, and the board insists on. a rigid examina- 
tion, usually by a physician of its own selection. 

After thirty, one's ability to acquire a free, A * e Limits 
colloquial use of a foreign tongue rapidly di- 
minishes. Moreover, one's ability to adapt 
himself to a different environment becomes 
less easy as the years pass. It is better that 
the transfer to new conditions and the study 
of a difficult language should begin before 
either the physical or intellectual life becomes 
so fixed that it is hard to acquire new things. 
The probable duration of effective service also 
shortens rapidly as one moves toward middle 
life. For these reasons, the boards do not 
like to accept any one over thirty-three, un- 
less other qualifications are exceptionally high, 
in which case the age of acceptance is occasion- 
ally extended to thirty-five. 

Graduation from both college and profes- Education 
sional school is ordinarily required in men, 
and at least a high school training in women. 
The boards insist, too, that the student's 
record shall be such as to show that he pos- 



j6 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



sesses more than average intellectual ability. 
A considerable part of the work of the mis- 
sionary is intellectual. His daily problems re- 
quire a trained mind. Moreover, in many 
fields he comes into contact with natives whose 
mental acumen is by no means contemptible. 
While, therefore, a board will not reject a 
candidate because he does not stand near the 
head of his class, it will reject him if his grades 
indicate mediocrity. The considerations that 
occasionally lead the Church at home to ordain 
a man who has not had a full course may lead 
a board to send one to the foreign field, but 
such cases are exceptions. 
Those without Graduates of technical schools are needed 

Theological 

Training yearly by the Board of Missions. Physicians 
are nearly always in demand. Colleges and 
boarding-schools frequently call for recruits 
who are specially qualified for teaching. Some- 
times mechanical and electrical engineers are 
needed for special chairs. Several boards have 
sought graduates of industrial and agricultural 
colleges for industrial schools. Hospitals often 
ask for trained nurses to act as matrons and 
head nurses. Mission presses call for superin- 
tendents who understand printing, while some 
of the larger missions can use to excellent ad- 
vantage laymen of commercial experience as 
treasurers, builders, and business agents. Of 
course the number that can be used in some 



Qualifications and Appointment 77 



of these ways is not great. The all-round 
candidate who can do anything that is assigned 
him is in chief demand. 

The boards make careful inquiry as to exec- 
utive ability and force of character. Many a 
man can do good service in the homeland who 
could not succeed on the foreign field. The 
duties of a missionary are not like those of a 
pastor at home, who usually succeeds to an 
established work, who finds methods already so 
largely determined that his duty is rather one 
of modification than of origination, and who 
has wise counselors in his church officers. The 
missionary's functions are rather those of a 
superintendent. He must be a leader and or- 
ganizer. Mere piety will not make a mission- 
ary, any more than mere patriotism will make 
an ambassador. The boards lay stress on 
energy, initiative, and self-reliance. They in- 
quire whether the candidate has qualities of 
leadership and whether, in general, he is a 
strong man. 

Common sense is a much rarer quality than 
might be supposed, and not a few candidates 
go down under the searching inquiries that the 
boards make regarding it. Some brilliant men 
lack the balance of judgment, the homely good 
sense, that are indispensable in a useful mis- 
sionary. The foreign missionary must deal 
with a variety of problems and conditions that 



Executive 
Ability 



Common Sense 



78 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



call for the practical man as distinguished from 
the visionary. The direction of native helpers, 
the expenditure of considerable sums of money, 
the superintendence of building operations, the 
settlement of the questions that are constantly 
arising among native Christians, the adjust- 
ment to all sorts of persons and conditions — 
these and other matters that might be 
mentioned cannot be prudently commit- 
ted to unbalanced men, however pious or 
healthy or intellectual. Governor Brown, 
of Georgia, used to say that "if the Lord 
has left judgment out of a man, there is 
no way of getting it in." The mission field 
is not the place for the dreamer, the crank, the 
mere enthusiast. The quality of good sense 
is so often developed in the school of privation 
that some of the best missionaries have been 
men who were forced by poverty to work 
their own way through college, for the 
necessity that was thus laid upon them de- 
veloped those qualities of alertness, self-re- 
liance, and good sense that are of high value in 
missionary life. 
pe^stlnce d The missionary movement is not a spas- 
Necessary mo dic crusade. It is not an easy life. The 
romantic halo about it is chiefly in books. It 
should not be entered upon, therefore, by 
those who are prone to rapid alternations of 
feeling, or who are easily discouraged, or who 



Qualifications and Appointment 79 

are incapable of persevering toil. The stu- 
dent who has volunteered under the impulse 
of emotional excitement should give his new 
purpose a reasonable testing period before 
making application for appointment. The 
man who- is always conceiving great projects 
and never carrying them out is another type 
that is not desired. Most of the boards have 
had experience with such missionaries and 
they do- not w r ant any more. The man of 
patient persistence in well-doing, who does 
not easily lose heart, who 1 courageously and 
inflexibly sticks to his work, however dis- 
couraging it may be, the man who, like Gen- 
eral Grant, "proposes to fight it out on this 
line if it takes all summer," is the type that 
is wanted for missionary service. Mission- 
ary employment is expected to be for life, and 
no one should apply who is not willing to* con- 
secrate himself irrevocably to it, who can- 
not make light of privations and "endure 
hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." 
A veteran missionary, in asking for an asso- 
ciate, wrote : "Send us a despiser of difficul- 
ties, who will not be discouraged under the 
most adverse circumstances, who will unite 
unflinching courage with consummate tact, 
know how to do impossible things and main- 
tain a pertinacity that borders on stubborn- 
ness with a suavity of manners that softens 



8o Why and How of Foreign Missions 



asperity/ 5 That is expecting a good deal of 
human nature, but it indicates the ideal that 
we have in mind. 
Tfmper b ament Ability to work harmoniously with others 
is a prime qualification. The mission circle is 
the very worst place in the world for a quar- 
relsome man or woman. One such mission- 
ary will wreck the happiness and perhaps the 
efficiency of a whole station. Xo degree of 
ability or force of character can make a mis- 
sionary of that type tolerable. Indeed, the 
stronger he is the more trouble he makes. 
Then there is the man, or the woman, who 
takes personal offense when his or her plans 
are opposed. Most troublesome of all is the 
type of Christian who is so certain that God 
has, in answer to prayer, shown him what 
ought to be done, that he is wholly inaccessi- 
ble to the arguments of others. It does not 
occur to him that his associates also pray and 
that God may guide them as well as him. A 
vast amount of unregenerate pugnacity and 
narrow-mindedness in this world passes for 
"fidelity to the truth as I see it." 

A cheerful spirit is as essential as ability to 
work with others. Some otherwise very ex- 
cellent people are by temperament despondent. 
They magnify difficulties and imagine them 
where they do not exist at all. Present to 
them any proposal, and they will see all the 



Cheerfulness 



Qualifications and Appointment 81 



objections to it first. They never weary of 
bemoaning the shortcomings of their fellow 
Christians. They walk about Zion and mark 
the defects thereof and tell them to the public. 
They remind one of the old Scotch elder, who 
lugubriously said of his church of three hun- 
dred members : "There be nae real Christians 
here except masel' an' Sandy, an' some- 
times I hae ma doots aboot Sandy." "Good 
Lord, deliver us!" is the prayer of the mis- 
sionaries already on the field regarding all 
these types. 

The candidate who< holds opinions of doc- 
trine or polity that are not in accord with 
those of the Church with which he would be 
associated as a missionary falls under the 
general head of incompatibility. Variance of 
this kind may be, and ordinarily is, held from 
thoroughly praiseworthy motives, and it is 
not the province of a board to attempt to con- 
vince the candidate that he is wrong or to 
bring any pressure whatever to bear upon 
him to change his views. It simply notes the 
fact that the candidate probably could not 
harmonize with missionaries who hold a dif- 
ferent position. This objection would not, of 
course, apply to those variations of belief that 
are within the recognized limits of evangelical 
faith as held by the Church to which the can- 
didate belongs. In no denomination is the 



82 Why and How of Foreign Missions 

ministry entirely homogeneous as to questions 
of doctrine, nor do the boards insist that the 
missionary body shall be. There are the same 
differences of this kind among missionaries 
that are to be found at home. We are refer- 
ring now to those questions that would dif- 
ferentiate a candidate from, the whole body of 
his associates and introduce embarrassing 
complications among them. Hobbies or ec- 
centricities of any kind are considered more 
or less objectionable as tending to divide those 
who ought not to be divided and to affect in- 
juriously the influence of the missionary body 
upon the natives, who are always quick to ob- 
serve and to comment upon such differences. 
Marriage j|- } s a mistake to suppose that the boards 
insist upon marriage. Indeed, some boards re- 
quire their men to go out single, but permit 
them to marry after learning the language 
and proving their fitness for missionary life. 
Other boards advise this course, but leave it 
to the judgment of the candidate. The ob- 
jections to< deferring marriage do not, as a 
rule, relate to the work, but come from fam- 
ilies on the field, who do not feel prepared to 
board young men. Traders and Roman 
Catholic priests usually keep "bachelors' 
hall," and where a couple of young mission- 
aries are together, there is no valid reason 
why they cannot do so for a year or two if 



Qualifications and Appointment 83 

necessary. No Protestant board advocates 
the celibacy of missionaries. All appoint 
married men; but almost all have certain 
forms of work that can better be done, for a 
time at least, by single men. A candidate, 
therefore, who has not already arranged for 
marriage, need not feel that he is under any 
pressure to do so. If, after a few years on 
the field, he wishes to marry, the board will 
have pleasure in sending his fiancee to him, 
provided, of course, she is found to possess 
the necessary qualifications for missionary life. 
So many missionaries and friends are con- 
stantly coming and going, that there is seldom 
any difficulty in finding suitable companion- 
ship for the young ladies on the journey. 

The fiancee must make a separate applica- i^n^, 061 ** 1316 
tion, and it will be as carefully investigated as 
that of the man whom she is to marry. No 
woman should go to the foreign field simply 
because she is the wife of a missionary. Life 
in a heathen land is so trying, from the view- 
point of home standards, that the wife who 
is not in deep spiritual sympathy with her 
husband's missionary work and purpose will 
almost certainly become lonely, discontented, 
and depressed. She may successfully fight 
against this for a time, but in the end she 
will not only become unhappy herself, but she 
will probably make her husband unhappy, 



84 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



while it is not improbable that her health will 
give way and that he will be compelled to 
give up his life's plans and return home with 
an invalid wife. Most of the boards have had 
such costly experiences of this kind that they 
are disposed to make careful inquiry regard- 
ing the qualifications of those w T ho expect to 
become the wives of missionaries, 
wives of fhe wives of missionaries are regarded as 

Missionaries 

associate missionaries, uniting with their hus- 
bands in desire and effort to give the gospel 
to the unevangelized. It is expected that, so 
far as is consistent with their strength and 
household duties, they will learn the language 
and take part in missionary w r ork. 
children g man y candidates have to be declined on 
account of their families that it is proper to 
add that, while the boards cordially recognize 
their privilege and duty in relation to chil- 
dren that are born on the field, the boards hesi- 
tate where there are children prior to appli- 
cation for appointment. It costs much more 
to transport such families to the field and 
more to house them after their arrival. A 
mother finds it difficult to get the time and 
strength for language study, and there is al- 
ways a possibility that such missionaries will 
have to resign because they find the foreign 
field unfavorable to the health of their chil- 
dren. Ordinarily, therefore, most boards do 



Qualifications and Appointment 85 



not like to appoint candidates who already 
have children, though they do this in excep- 
tional cases. 

It need hardly be said that if any one of and 
the qualifications that have been mentioned is s P iritual Life 
more indispensable than the others, it is spir- 
itual life. No matter how healthy or able or 
well educated, the successful candidate must 
have a sound, well-developed Christian char- 
acter. The boards do not commission mere 
physicians or school-teachers, but missionaries. 
The medical graduate who simply wishes to 
practise his profession in a great mission hos- 
pital in Asia, the professor whose ambition is 
only to build up a flourishing school, the youth 
who wants to see strange lands and peoples or 
who is animated by the spirit of adventure, 
are not wanted. Missionary work in all its 
forms is distinctly spiritual in spirit and aim. 
David Livingstone, when asked what were 
the chief requirements of a successful mis- 
sionary, gave as the first: "A goodly por- 
tion of God's own loving yearnings over the 
souls of the heathen." The boards, therefore, 
place great stress on the candidate's spiritual 
experience and his motives for seeking mis- 
sionary service. The missionary should be 
above everything else a spiritual guide. In- 
quiries on this point are carefully made, and 
if there is reason to doubt the spiritual influ- 



86 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



Other Desirable 
Qualities 



Encouragement 
to Applicants 



ence of a candidate, he is certain to be de- 
clined. 

Other considerations may emerge in par- 
ticular cases. Some experience in teaching or 
Christian work, and a knowledge of music in 
women candidates and of bookkeeping in 
men, while not usually required, add to the 
attractiveness of an application. The quali- 
fications that have been mentioned, however, 
are those that are generally sought for by the 
boards. Taken together in this way they may 
appear to constitute a formidable list; but this 
enumeration should not ease the conscience 
of any young man or woman who is consider- 
ing the question of going to the foreign 
field. 

Ill health, imperfect education, dependent 
relatives, inability to work harmoniously with 
others, and age that forbids hope of acquir- 
ing a difficult language are valid reasons for 
not applying; but unless some such positive 
disqualification is known to exist, the proper 
course is to correspond with the secretary of 
the board and he will gladly give all needed 
counsel. A general sense of unfitness for so 
noble a calling is not an adequate reason for 
failure to apply. Such modesty is apt to be 
the refuge of those who are quite willing to 
have an excuse to stay at home. One should 
not be deterred because of reports that men 



Qualifications and Appointment 87 



are being rejected for want of funds or for 
any other reason. The financial situation 
may have changed, or an unexpected vacancy 
may have occurred. The fact that an appar- 
ently good man of one's acquaintance has 
been declined is not necessarily a reason for 
discouragement, for the board may have dis- 
covered some defect that his friends did not 
suspect, or the trouble may have been with 
his fiancee. No matter what one hears, if he 
feels that he ought to go to the foreign field, 
he should send in his application and place 
upon the board the responsibility of dealing 
with it. 

There is no disgrace in being rejected, for ofR P ejSc?ioiT 
it will readily be seen that a number of the 
reasons mentioned above may be providential 
in character, and, while hindering one's going 
to the foreign field, might not hinder a suc- 
cessful life for Christ in the homeland. More- 
over, the boards consider all applications as 
confidential, so that the fact of rejection need 
not be known beyond the limited circle of the 
friends whose private opinions it is necessary 
for the board to seek. 

The procedure in making application is MakSfg rcin 
simple — write to the General Secretary of the Application 
Board for a set of application blanks and all 
needful information. The secretary, on re- 
ceiving the formal application, corresponds with 



88 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



those who know the candidate. Some boards 
have a printed list of questions for this pur- 
pose, as they have learned from experience 
that, while most people will tell the truth, 
they will not tell all the truth unless definite 
questions are asked and a specific answer in- 
sisted upon. The time required for this investi- 
gation is ordinarily about two or three months, 
though in special cases it may vary. 
Headquarters a further precaution, a few of the boards 

have adopted the plan of bringing newly ap- 
pointed missionaries to their headquarters for 
a conference of a week or ten days. These 
conferences have proved to be of great interest 
and value, enabling the secretaries to pass the 
appointees in careful review before going to 
the field, establishing at the outset relations of 
personal friendship, acquainting the new mis- 
sionary with some of the lessons of missionary 
experience and the main features of missionary 
policy, and clarifying his opinions on a number 
of important matters. 
Missionary call jj ow may one ^now wne ther he is called 

of God to be a missionary? The divine sum- 
mons is made known in a variety of w T ays. 
Some men are conscious of a call almost as 
distinct and commanding as that of the 
Apostle Paul. Probably few have such an 
experience, and the lack of it should not be 
regarded as an indication that one has no 



Qualifications and Appointment 89 

call to missionary service. God's will is often 
made known in quieter ways. Many theo- 
logical students make the mistake of assum- 
ing that the absence of an external peremptory 
call means that they should stay at home. 
The result is that scores look for home pas- 
torates because they "have no call to go 
abroad." The assumption should be just the 
reverse. If God calls a man to preach the 
gospel at all, surely the presumption is in favor 
of the field where the work is the greatest 
and the workers are fewest. With an aver- 
age of one minister for every 514 people at 
home and candidates thronging every vacant 
pulpit, while abroad there is an average of 
but one for every 174,000 of the population; 
with all the doors of opportunity wide open 
and the mission boards vainly appealing for 
more men — it is preposterous for the average 
student to assume that he should stay in 
America unless a voice from heaven summons 
him to go to the needy millions of Asia or 
Africa. In the language of Keith-Falconer: 
"While vast continents are shrouded in al- 
most utter darkness, and hundreds of millions 
suffer the horrors of heathenism or of Islam, 
the burden of proof lies upon you to show that 
the circumstances in which God has placed you 
were meant by him to keep you out of the 
foreign mission field." 



90 Why and How of Foreign Missions 

?f U Need n The plea that there are needs at home is 
mere quibbling, in view not only of the facts 
already stated, but of the further fact that 
about ninety-eight out of every hundred 
students are staying at home. It is probably 
fair to say of any given student that there is 
no need of him in the home field that is at all 
commensurate with the need of him on the 
foreign field. His proper attitude therefore 
should not be, "Why should I go as a foreign 
missionary ?" but "Why should I not go?" 
The late James Gilmour, the famous itinerant 
missionary to the Mongol tribes, wrote of this 
period in his student life: "Even on the low 
ground of common sense I seemed to be called 
to be a missionary. Is the kingdom a harvest 
field? Then I thought it reasonable that 
I should seek the work where the work was 
most abundant and the workers fewest." 
"This was the plain common-sense process by 
which that apostle, to Mongolia reached a de- 
cision as to duty." 



Qualifications and Appointment 91 



QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER III 1 

Aim: To Understand What Sort of Persons are 
Needed for Foreign Missionary Work and How 
They are Appointed 

1. 'Make out a list of questions which you think 
a board should submit to missionary candidates 
on the subject of physical qualifications. 

2. What answers to these questions would you 
accept as satisfactory? 

3. Make out a list of questions on the subject of 
educational and mental qualifications, and indi- 
cate satisfactory answers. 

4. Make out a list on the subject of personal 
character and ability, and indicate satisfactory 
answers. 

5. Make out a list on the subject of spiritual 
qualifications, with satisfactory answers. 

6. To what persons, besides the candidate, would 
you apply for information on these topics? 

7. What questions would you put to these others 
that you would not put to the candidate? 

8. Under which head would you consider it most 
important to have strongly favorable testi- 
mony ? 

9. Under which head would you be most prepared 
to accept testimony not altogether favorable? 

10. Would you accept a candidate who was not a 
successful missionary at home? 

1 Churchmen desiring to know the requirements of candidates 
for the foreign field should write the General Secretary of the 
Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, 281 Fourth Avenue, 
New York City. 



Why and How of Foreign Missions 

11. What sort of courses would you advise a 
college freshman to take in preparation for 
the foreign field? 

12. What special work would you recommend for 
a theological student? 

13. What special work, for a medical student? 

14. What sort of training would you advise for 
a young woman volunteer sixteen years of age 
during the time that must intervene before she 
went to the field? 

15. Whose fault is it that the average ability of 

missionaries is not higher? 

16. What besides personal qualifications might 
lead an application to be accepted at one time 
and rejected at another? 

17. What advantage is it for a board to have more 
candidates than it can send out? 

18. What percentage of persons in the United 
States do you think have the necessary phys- 
ical qualifications for foreign missionary serv- 
ice? 

19. What percentage have the necessary mental 
and educational qualifications? 

20. What percentage have the necessary qualifica- 
tions as to character and ability? 

21. What percentage have the necessary spiritual 
qualifications ? 

22. What percentage possess all these qualifica- 
tions in the required degree? 

23. What measure of responsibility do you think 
rests upon this last-named class ? . 



Qualifications and Appointment 



24. Name what you consider to be valid reasons 
for those well qualified for the foreign field 
to remain at home. 

25. What constitutes a call to the foreign field? 

26. Should those qualified assume that they ought 
to stay at home unless they have a special call 
to go abroad or that they ought to go unless 
they have a special call to stay? 

27. What proportion of those who ought to go 
abroad do you think actually do go? 

28. What measures can you suggest for securing 
the volunteers that are needed and that ought 
to respond? 

29. What would you tell a person who suspected 
he was called to the foreign field but who was 
not yet willing to make a decision? 

30. What would you tell a person who w T as will- 
ing to go but who seemed hardly to possess 
the proper qualifications? 

31. What responsibilities rest on those not qualified 
to go abroad or hindered for valid reasons? 

32. How much compared with those who go to 
the field ought they to be willing to sacrifice 
for the cause? 



THE FINANCIAL SUPPORT OF THE 
MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 



95 



The Church ought to regard the provision of am- 
ple funds for the prosecution of its great campaign as a 
matter of course, as its most elementary duty. But 
it should give much more than subscriptions and col- 
lections. It should give keen and eager interest, un- 
failing sympathy, intelligent and fervent prayer. That 
is "support of missions." — Eugene Stock 

If it were possible to secure a general consensus 
of judgment from a large number of people as to how 
a missionary ought to live in order to exert the most 
profound and permanent influence over the people 
to whom he is sent, there would probably be practical 
unanimity in the conclusion that he ought not to live 
in what is called "luxury," even if such privileges were 
to be provided by the missionary society that supports 
him. . . . There are many who have formed in their 
minds a conception of the missionary living rudely, 
without any of the common comforts of life, enduring 
the severest hardships and perils amid most forbidding 
surroundings. This conception has become so thor- 
oughly fixed in the minds of many good Christians in 
civilized countries, that it is something of a shock to 
them to know that the missionary ordinarily lives in a 
comfortable house with a good roof over his head, and 
a comfortable bed to sleep upon at night, and that he 
has daily sufficient food for the proper nourishment of 
his body. — James L. Barton 



96 



IV 



THE FINANCIAL SUPPORT OF THE 
MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 

THIS is a subject that interests the lay- $^Z£ s ?£f 
man who gives as well as the student 
who volunteers. There is special reason for 
discussing it, because it is often misunder- 
stood. 

It should be borne in mind at the outset support Rather 

than 

that the principle is support rather than com- compensation 
pensation. Inquiry is made as to the cost 
of a reasonably comfortable living, and a sum 
is assigned that covers that cost. The amount 
varies in different fields, as the cost of living 
varies. A married man gets more than a single 
man, because two are to be supported 
instead of one. The birth of a child brings 
a small additional allowance, usually $100 
a year, because it means an increased expendi- 
ture. This is sometimes criticised, but any 
parent in the United States can give a critic 
valuable information as to whether a child can 
be fed, clothed, and educated on $100 a year. 

Most of the boards make a flat rate for |^|f z s ed 
all the missionaries of a given region, pay- 
ing the same amount to the new recruit as 

97 



98 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



to the veteran. Other boards grade salaries 
according to length of service, paying a mini- 
mum amount for the first term, a little larger 
sum for the second term, and a still larger 
one for the third. This plan is growing 
in favor, as it recognizes the fact that expenses 
increase with enlarging work and family; 
but no distinction is ever made on the ground 
of relative ability or responsibility. The most 
famous preacher, the president of a great uni- 
versity, and the superintendent of the largest 
hospital, receive precisely the same salary as 
the humblest member of the mission. 
Clergymen, educators, and physicians are all 
paid the same salaries. Single men usually re- 
ceive a little more than single women, not be- 
cause they are considered as worth more, but 
because it costs them more to live, as they more 
often require separate establishments, while 
single women can usually live with some family 
or in a school. 

sail^ verage It will be seen that it is not possible to 
state any particular figure that would apply 
to all fields. The salary varies with length of 
service from $750 to $1,100 for a single mis- 
sionary and $1,250 to $1,750 for a married one. 
This is not designed to cover house accom- 
modations, which are provided in addition. 
Adequat^ Scale sca ^ e °f support is intended to be ade- 

quate to the needs of a Christian worker who 



Support of Missionary Enterprise 99 



is not luxurious in his tastes, and the promised 
sum is promptly paid. It covers, however, 
only reasonable needs, and while ministers in 
this country may look forward to an increase, 
sometimes to large figures, the most eminent 
foreign missionary expects only modest 
support to the day of his death. Other 
foreigners in non-christian lands are paid far 
more liberally than missionaries. It is as true 
now as when Macaulay wrote, that "all 
English labor in India, from the labor of the 
governor-general and the commander-in 
chief down to that of a groom or a watch- 
maker, must be paid for at a higher rate than 
at home. No man will be banished, and ban- 
ished to the torrid zone, for nothing." 

Business men, who have commercial deal- workers 
ings with Asia and Africa, say that they have b y Contrast 
to pay three times the salaries that are paid 
in America, in order to induce their clerks 
and agents to stay abroad. One of the latter 
is reported to have said that he "would rather 
hang on to a lamp-post in the United States 
than to have an estate and a palace amid the 
heat and dust and snakes and dirt and fevers 
and fleas of a typical Oriental country." Such 
discomforts do not characterize all mission 
lands, but they do characterize many of them. 
The fact that some restless adventurers pre- 
fer an African jungle or an Asiatic port does 



ioo Why and How of Foreign Missions 



not invalidate the statement that the average 
man will not live amid such conditions unless 
he is tempted by the hope of rich gains. But 
missionaries like Bishop Brent, Bishop Kin- 
solving and the Rev. Dr. W. C. Brow r n, of 
Brazil, the late Bishops Ingle and Schereschew- 
sky, educators like the Rev. Dr. F. L. H. Pott, 
and physicians like Dr. W. H. Boone, and 
dozens of other distinguished missionaries, who 
could have commanded large salaries at home, 
have only received the ordinary missionary 
stipend. Dr. Boone, for example, gave up a 
practise yielding thousands of dollars a year to 
become a missionary at a salary of as many 
hundreds. 

Ssources N° r h as ^ missionary the local resources 
of the home missionary. He cannot accept 
money from native Christians for his personal 
use without exposing himself to the charge of 
mercenary motives in coming among them. It 
is hard enough at best for them to understand 
his disinterestedness. He must be able to say : 
"I seek not yours, but you." Therefore if he 
earns money, he turns it over to the board, so 
careful is he to avoid even the appearance of 
self-seeking. 

prices of it is misleading" to say that "a dollar will 

Supplies # 2:5 J a • m 

Abroad g further in a heathen land than in America. 
It may, perhaps, in the purchase of some na- 
tive supplies, but not in the articles which 



Support of Missionary Enterprise IOI 

Europeans and Americans deem necessary. 
The average mission land does not produce the 
kinds of food and clothing that a white man 
has to use, and the missionary must usually 
buy in the homeland, paying the same price 
that the average American at home pays and, 
in addition, the cost of freight across a con- 
tinent or an ocean, usually both. True, he 
can sometimes purchase a part of his supplies 
at a local store at exorbitant prices; but as a 
rule he finds it cheaper to buy his food and 
clothing in London, New York, or Chicago. 

The change in economic conditions in re- of Living* ° ost 
cent years has seriously affected the missionary. 
The cost of living has risen as rapidly 
on the foreign field as at home, but the salaries 
have risen very little or not at all. A 
committee of the Laos Mission writes : "The 
cost of vegetables, fruit, chickens, eggs, fuel, 
and coolie hire has doubled, and in some cases 
trebled, within the past twelve years. There 
has also been a constant advance in the prices 
of meat and milk. We do not mention such 
luxuries as Irish potatoes, which sell at $24 
per bushel (too dear for a missionary's 
purse) ; nor ham, which sells at sixty cents 
per pound." 

This upward movement is spreading all over ASerfca South 
the world. A missionary in South America 
writes: "Multiply American prices of shoes 



102 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



by two and a half, clothing by two, 
cheap cloth by three, underclothes by four, 
hats by three, and you will have the prices of 
the same qualities of the same articles 
here." 

Mfilio^des It should be borne in mind, too, that the 
missionary has many calls upon his charity. 
Rectors of large city churches know how 
numerous such calls are at home. But there 
is probably no other Christian worker in the 
world upon whom they press so heavily as the 
foreign missionary. He is among multitudes 
of poverty-stricken people. There are no 
charitable agencies, as at home, to which they 
can be referred, nor are there well-to-do lay- 
men who can help in bearing the burden. The 
sick and starving are continually appealing 
to him. Moreover, as he organizes the con- 
verts into churches, he wishes to impress upon 
them the duty of giving as a Christian grace, 
and in order to make his teaching effective, he 
must set the example. We do not know of 
any missionary who gives less than one tenth 
of his salary in these ways, and many give a 
much larger proportion. If Christians at 
home would give as liberally as missionaries, 
the whole enterprise would be far more gen- 
erously supported. 
cdti A cism rd I n the light of these facts, the absurdity of 
the criticism that "missionaries live in luxury" 



Support of Missionary Enterprise 103 



just 
Statements 



will readily be seen. Missionaries who 
can "live in luxury" in such circumstances 
must be remarkable financiers. The fact is 
that the missionary is seldom able to save 
anything, and if he breaks down, he becomes 
dependent. 

Globe-trotters who have eagerly accepted 
missionary hospitality have sometimes been 
guilty of base ingratitude in their accounts of 
it. Oppressed by their loneliness and hungry 
for tidings from the homeland, the mission- 
ary and his wife heartily welcome the visitor 
and, in honor of the occasion, bring out their 
little household treasures, put on their best 
clothes, and prepare a dinner far better than 
they ordinarily have or than they can really 
afford. Then the guest goes away to prate 
about the extravagance of missionaries. A 
friend once gave Mrs. Hepburn of Japan a 
large turkey, a costly gift in Japan. That 
very day, an American traveler called with a 
letter of introduction. She invited him to 
dinner, and he wrote home, and his statement 
was printed in several newspapers, that the 
most expensive meal he had eaten in his tour 
around the world was at the table of a foreign 
missionary ! 

"But I hear that a certain missionary keeps Qu1st?on ant 
four servants while I can afford but one!" 
cries a wife in America. Allow us to suggest 



104 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



Native 

Methods 

Unavoidable 



Our Municipal 
Arrangements 
Aid Us 



some considerations which may not have oc- 
curred to this wife. 

First, her one servant doing general house- 
work means as much help as four servants 
mean in a heathen land. A cook in India will 
do nothing but cook; a sweeper nothing but 
sweep; a water-drawer nothing but draw 
water; and so on through the whole list, each 
one, moreover, performing his task in a spirit 
the reverse of strenuous. A cook would die 
rather than touch a broom, for he would break 
his caste. "If/' writes a missionary wife, 
"my own pleasure were consulted, I would 
certainly prefer working in my own home to 
visiting dirty homes infested with vermin and 
offensive odors. It seems a little strange 
that the missionary who pays her servants out 
of her own salary is so much blamed for what 
she would gladly help if she could." 

Second, consider, too, that at home we all 
have many assistants whose services we fail to 
take into account in comparing ourselves with 
foreign missionaries. The mail-carrier de- 
livers our mail without cost to us; but the 
missionary usually has to hire some one to get 
his mail from the post-office, which is probably 
miles away. We can travel on a street- 
car or a railway train; but the mission- 
ary must employ coolies to carry him in a 
chair or wheel him in a barrow or row him in 



Support of Missionary Enterprise 105 



a boat to his preaching appointments in out- 
lying villages. The city policeman patrols 
our street; but the foreigner in Asia and 
Africa must engage a watchman or have all 
his belongings stolen. The grocer calls at our 
house for orders and delivers the goods; but 
the missionary must have a native to do his 
marketing, as in many cases the native shop- 
keepers will ask a foreigner several times 
what they would ask their own people, and 
will come down to a reasonable figure only 
after hours of wearisome haggling; for time 
is no object to an Oriental. Our complex and 
highly developed civilization in Europe and 
America enables the average man to avail 
himself daily of the labors of scores of others. 
The missionary, living in more primitive con- 
ditions, must hire servants, or neglect his work 
and spend the greater part of his time doing 
things himself that natives can do just as well 
and at smaller cost. 

Third, the foreign missionary, living as he Mu*tbe°Kq 
does in lands where hotels are few and vile 
and where Oriental ideas of hospitality pre- 
vail, is forced to keep open house for all 
comers. The occasional traveler and the con- 
stantly passing and repassing missionaries of 
his own and other churches must be freely 
entertained. The natives, too, call in ap- 
palling numbers. The host, like Abraham of 



io6 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



old, must hasten to set meat and drink before 
every guest, for failure to do so would be 
deemed a breach of hospitality and an offense 
which would probably end the missionary's 
influence. A missionary's wife in Syria says 
that she often had twenty to meals and a hun- 
dred callers in a single day, all of whom had 
to be served with cakes and coffee or lemonade. 
Another in China had 4,580 women visitors in 
one year, besides men and children. Tea had 
to be provided for all that host. 
S ighe n£ la - ms Fourth, would it be common sense to send 

Upon Mission 9 

workers an educated Christian woman as a foreign 
missionary, and then force her to spend her 
time in cooking meals and washing dishes, 
when she can hire native servants who are 
glad to do that work for a few cents a day? 
Julian Ralph, writing from Asia on this sub- 
ject, says: "I demand that the missionaries 
keep servants. They are paid to give their 
time to missionary work, and, especially in 
the case of a wife and mother, I claim she has 
no right to do housework, sewing, and similar 
work and give only her leisure from such 
things to that service for which she has a regu- 
lar salary." 

N^vfsDo'* he Some people innocently ask, "Why don't 
missionaries live as the natives do?" Such 
people probably do not know how the natives 
live. An African fastens a yard of calico 



Support of Missionary Enterprise 107 



around his waist, ties a string of beads about 
his neck, and fancies himself dressed for all 
occasions. Bare-headed, bare-chested, and 
bare-footed, he exposes himself to the fierce 
rays of the tropical sun, and when night 
comes, with its chill air and drenching dew, 
he sleeps upon the ground. An American 
doing that would be smitten with African fever 
within twenty-four hours. A Chinese lives 
contentedly and works hard on a handful 
of rice a day, and in a dark, unventilated 
room, not much larger than the kennel in 
which the reader keeps his dog. Would the 
critic live that way? Could he? A typical 
heathen woman does all the drudgery of the 
household, collects fuel, tills the fields, and 
secures and prepares the food. Do the critics 
at home want their wives to do such work? 
Burmese children run around naked until they 
are about ten years of age. Would we allow 
our children to do so ? 

Live as a heathen does? The heathen does fu^^n* 
not live. The death-rate of heathenism is Ar e ument 
appalling. The men die of consumption and 
pneumonia and fevers and cholera and small- 
pox. The children are carried off in regi- 
ments by diphtheria and measles and scarlet 
fever and cholera infantum; while as for the 
women, at the age of forty, wdien the English 
and American woman is in the full splendor 



io8 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



of her beauty, the typical heathen woman is 
old and withered. 
Experiment jf an y critic really imagines that he could 
live as the heathen live, let him try it. Let 
him build a hut in his back yard— no floor but 
the beaten earth, no windows but latticed or 
paper-covered openings, no bed but a hard 
platform, no stove but an open fire in the 
middle of the room, no chimney but a hole in 
the roof through which the smoke rises and 
the wind and rain and snow fall, and no fuel 
but manure mixed with grass, made into 
cakes by his w T ife or daughter and dried in the 
sun. For food, let him buy three bushels of 
corn. It will sustain life for several weeks 
and cost but a dollar. Have the wife pound 
it between two stones, mix it with water, and 
bake it in the ashes. Then let him eat corn for 
breakfast and corn for dinner and corn for 
supper, and the next day eat corn for breakfast 
and corn for dinner and corn for supper, and 
before many days have passed, even the most 
obtuse critic will know why the foreign mis- 
sionary does not and cannot live as the natives 
do. 

Economy s No, the boards are not going to ask foreign 
missionaries to live as the natives do. The mis- 
sionary is a civilized man and he needs some 
things that the uncivilized man does without. 
Making all due allowance for exceptional 



Support of Missionary Enterprise 109 



places, it still remains true that the 
average foreign missionary lives and works 
under a strain which few at home realize, 
and it would be folly to compel him to adopt 
a mode of life that would wreck his consti- 
tution in a few years. Common sense dictates 
that, having incurred the expense of sending 
him out, he should be so equipped that he 
may be able to do the work for which 
he was sent. The disastrous experience of 
the American army in Cuba taught the gov- 
ernment that it is poor policy to economize in 
the support of soldiers. A division of in- 
valids is worth little in a campaign. Shall the 
Church be less wise in taking reasonable care 
of its men ? 

We grant that there are richer natives who £ t 
live on a much better scale ; but their expendi- 
tures are so great that a missionary could not 
possibly equal them. The Chinese mandarin 
and the East Indian noble often spend money 
lavishly; but even then, their ideas of comfort 
differ so widely from ours that their homes 
could scarcely be deemed ideal by the average 
American. Thousands of young men in Eng- 
land have pleasanter bedrooms than the Em- 
peror of China, and the average mechanic in 
the United States has a more comfortably 
warmed house than a samurai of Japan, in 
spite of the costly furs that lie on his floor and 



HO Why and How of Foreign Missions 

the elaborate carvings that adorn his room. 
The food and general manner of life of the 
wealthier classes in Asia would quickly under- 
mine the health of a European or American. 

It is said that the missionaries of certain 
independent organizations are not maintained 
as are the missionaries of the denominational 
boards. This is an error, so far as the best 
of these societies are concerned. The actual 
salary may be smaller, but there are allow- 
ances that the denominational boards do not 
make, so that the net result to the missionary 
is practically the same. There are, however, 
independent societies of which the statement 
is true; but the frequent result is suffering 
that ought to have been avoided, or else, as 
one missionary writes, "The independent 
missionary cultivates friendly relations with 
some neighboring board missionary; his calls, 
by a singular coincidence, usually happening 
about meal-time." A disregard of means 
that God has provided is neither religion nor 
business. The Christian at home has no right 
to demand all the good things of life for him- 
self — comfortable house, abundant food, ade- 
quate clothing — and then insist that his per- 
sonal representative in preaching the gospel 
abroad shall be half-starved. If it is a Chris- 
tian's duty to live like a tramp without visible 
means of support, let the home rector and lay- 



Support of Missionary Enterprise in 



The Missionary 
Home an 



man set the example. It is easier to do it 
here than in a heathen land and less dangerous 
to health. 

It should be remembered, too, that the mis- 
sionary represents not only a superior religion object-lesson 
but, in some lands at least, the more decent 
style of living which has resulted from that 
religion. It is, though a subordinate, yet a 
real part of his mission to exemplify this. His 
better house and mode of living are them- 
selves an object-lesson of the uplifting influ- 
ence of Christianity. He would be untrue to 
his faith if he abdicated the function of a 
Christian gentleman and lived like a barbarian. 
He goes out to bring the heathen up to his 
level, not to go down to theirs. 

Nor would personal degradation be more 
likely to win the natives to Christianity. 
Dr. John Forman, of India, made a per- 
sistent effort to live like the natives. He 
rented a small room, wore cheap clothes, and 
ate the simplest food. He writes : "What I 
had longed for was to get near the people, to 
convince them that I really was working only 
for their salvation and that I was denying my- 
self for them. I was never more thoroughly 
earnest about anything I undertook, and never 
have I felt that I made a more dismal failure. 
Everything turned out just as I had not ex- 
pected. They seemed to regard me as nothing 



A Useless 
Sacrifice 



H2 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



Different Modes 
of Living 



but poor white trash. The idea that I had 
voluntarily given up anything or was denying 
myself never occurred to them. I was still 
the same government official, only had not 
succeeded in getting a very remunerative posi- 
tion. I had less influence instead of more. 
I met with a great deal of opposition, a vast 
amount of ridicule, and had no end of yelling, 
hooting, and hand-clapping from the small 
boys, but my success seemed to end there." 

The fact is that an American simply cannot 
equal an East Indian fakir in his mode of 
living. The latter sprinkles himself with 
ashes, begs his frugal meals, wears nothing 
but a loin-cloth, subjects himself to frightful 
austerities, performs his devotions in public 
places, and never washes himself. The plainest 
living possible to a foreigner impresses the 
natives as luxurious in comparison with their 
own devotees, and therefore has absolutely no 
good effect upon them. 

Some missionaries, who do not believe in 
wrong Theories boards or fixed salaries, have gone out inde- 
pendently, with the intention of supporting 
themselves by teaching or some other kind of 
w r ork, or of subsisting on the direct sponta- 
neous gifts of individuals or local churches at 
home. The results have usually been disas- 
trous. Dr. Lawrence said that it seemed to 
him "that India was literary strewn with the 



Mission Efforts 
Wrecked by 



Support of Missionary Enterprise 113 



wrecks of mission work begun by such inde- 
pendent missionaries, but for one reason and 
another abandoned. Much the same is proving 
true of Africa." 

A missionary who has no means of his own Bo^dthe 
cannot live in Asia or Africa without a salary. Best A s enc y 
He cannot reasonably expect the poverty- 
stricken natives to support him. If he sup- 
ports himself, he must toil in a way that will 
undermine his health, secularize his life, and 
probably expose him to the charge of mer- 
cenary motives. If he depends upon a salary 
from home, a board is the best agency for its 
collection and payment. A missionary once 
declined to receive further salary from his 
board on the ground that the Holy Spirit had 
directed him "to trust the Lord to support 
him by the voluntary gifts of his people." 
Such a request indicates a confusion of ideas. 
Does not the Lord provide money that his 
people send through a board? It is not a 
question whether a missionary shall receive 
money for his support; it is whether he shall 
receive it in the orderly way that the people 
of God, led by his Spirit, have instituted. A 
Christian worker who refuses a salary either 
receives a larger sum than he ought to have, 
with the attendant injustice to givers and 
waste of the Lord's money, or he receives 
less than he ought to get, with the attendant 



114 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



injury to his own health and wrong to those 
who are dependent upon him. When Mr. 
Moody conducted a series of meetings in a 
certain city, he agreed to a definite payment for 
his services, and all believed him to be both 
pious and sensible. Another evangelist, a 
year or two later, refused to enter into any 
financial compact or to allow any collections 
or subscription papers, stating that he would 
take only what the Spirit of God prompted 
the people to give. The result was not only 
embarrassment for the committee in charge, 
but, in the end, a considerably larger sum than 
he ought to have had. 
\ sensible view j t a pp ears reasonable to insist that if a mis- 
sionary ought to go to the foreign field at 
all, the home Church ought to send him and 
maintain him, unless he has a personal income 
that suffices for his wants, and that gifts for 
his support should be sent through the estab- 
lished agency of the Church to which he be- 
longs. Faith and piety are consistent with 
common sense. 

Regular salary The question has often been mooted 

Payments 

whether a board, instead of guaranteeing the 
missionary a fixed salary, should not simply 
send him his proportion of whatever sum it 
may receive. But the receipts of all the boards 
come in very irregularly and seldom equal ex- 
penditures for the first eight months of a fiscal 



Support of Missionary Enterprise 115 



the Risk 



year. If a board simply distributed receipts 
as they came in, the missionaries would not 
have enough to live upon for two thirds of the 
year. They would surfer for the necessaries 
of life, or they would have to run up debts 
that would seriously compromise their mission- 
ary reputation. 

The plan impresses us as visionary and un- M^caSy 
businesslike. No sensible layman would 
dream of conducting his business on any such 
basis. Nor should we expect grocers and 
butchers and clothiers of heathen or Chris- 
tian lands to supply missionaries with the 
necessaries of life, with the understanding 
that they will be paid for, if the Lord 
moves his people to provide the funds. If 
that scheme is a good one, why should it not 
be made equally applicable to ministers at 
home? There is no valid reason why it should 
be confined to the foreign missionaries. We 
believe that the only sound principle, both in 
faith and in business, is that the Church 
should, through a duly constituted board, as- 
sume responsibility for the support of the mis- 
sionaries that it sends out. When God calls 
men to go, he calls his people to send. If there 
is financial risk to be taken, the Church should 
take it. It is neither fair nor Christian to un- 
load its proper responsibilities upon the already; 
over-burdened missionaries. 



n6 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



Missionaries Information about the houses of missionaries 
Luxurious is frequently desired, especially by those who 
have been disturbed by statements that they are 
equal to the houses of native noblemen. A 
similar statement might be made about the 
houses of many American mechanics. We 
do not deny that the missionary's dwelling 
often appears palatial in comparison with 
the wretched hovels in which the natives 
herd like rabbits in a warren. Shattered 
health and rapidly filled cemeteries have 
taught missionaries that, if they are to live, 
they must go a little apart from the mal- 
odorous, insanitary, human pigsty, with its 
rotting garbage and open cesspools, select a 
site high enough to afford natural drainage, 
and build a house with a sufficient number of 
cubic feet of space for the persons who are to 
occupy it. Then the natural taste of the hus- 
band leads him to make a little lawn and to 
set out a few shrubs and flowers, while in- 
doors his wife sensibly makes everything as 
cozy and attractive as she Ccin with the means 
at her disposal. As it is supposed to be a 
home for life, articles by gift and purchase are 
gradually accumulated, and it really becomes 
a pretty place in time. Contrasting as it does 
with the miserable habitations of a heathen 
city, it attracts attention ; but its attractiveness 
is not due to the lavish expenditure of money, 



Support of Missionary Enterprise 117 



but to the good taste and inventiveness of a 
cultivated, intelligent family. 

The visitor approaching Fusan, Korea, is Good°Fort y u 
apt to remark upon the buildings that stand in Fusan 
conspicuously upon the hill, and to hear a 
sneer about the selfishness and ostentation of 
missionaries in selecting the best sites. The 
facts are that when the missionaries went to 
Fusan, they could not afford to buy in the 
city, and they took the hill site because it was 
unoccupied and cheap, paying just $75 for the 
whole tract on which church, hospital, and 
residences now stand. The owner was glad 
to get that price, as the land was then prac- 
tically valueless. That time has proved it to 
be the best site in Fusan, and that the mission 
occupation of it led others to seek the neigh- 
borhood so that the place is now valuable, is 
simply a tribute to the good judgment of the 
missionaries. 

Another illustration occurred in Persia, « P aiace a " 
where the missionaries were accused of hav- 
ing for a summer resort at Lake Urumia 
"one of the finest palaces in all the land." 
The "palace" referred to was an old, 
abandoned one-story and basement mud build- 
ing, which the owner was delighted to sell to 
the missionaries for $80. They fixed it up 
as best they could with a private gift of $170 
from a kind-hearted lady in St. Louis, and then 



n8 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



the several missionary families of Urumia took 
turns in occupying it for a few weeks during 
the heated term. 
A /* e , rag ? Cost A few missionary residences in different 

of Missionary J 

Residences lands have been built by wealthy relatives for 
particular missionaries, and occasionally one 
is built as a memorial for a deceased friend. 
But the average missionary residence costs 
from $2,500 to $3,000, including land. Build- 
ing in most fields is quite as expensive as at 
home. Indeed lumber, glass, and hardware 
can often be imported from England or 
America cheaper than they can be bought on 
the field. Many missionary houses in China 
and Korea contain Oregon lumber, Pittsburg 
windows, and Birmingham metals. The 
reader can therefore judge for himself how- 
palatial such a place must be. The average 
missionary residence is about like the home 
of a country clergyman or school-teacher in 
England and America; though in the tropics, 
the fertility of the soil, the luxuriance of palms 
and foliage-plants, and the cheapness of labor 
make it easier for the missionary to have 
beautiful grounds. 



Support of Missionary' Enterprise 119 



QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER IV 

Aim : To Understand Why Missionaries Receive the 
Salaries They Do 

1. In the Society of Friends, the ministers receive 
no salaries. What are the advantages of this 
arrangement ? 

2. What are the principal arguments against it? 

3. If the ministry is to be salaried, what prin- 
ciples should determine the amount each indi- 
vidual is to receive? 

4. How ought the homes of ministers to compare 
with those of their congregations? 

5. What possible abuses of the system should 
be guarded against? 

6. Is a congregation which desires an able man 
justified in offering an "attractive" salary? 

7. To what extent should the principles which 
govern the support of ministers at home apply 
to missionaries on the foreign field? 

8. What arguments can you give for paying mis- 
sionaries smaller salaries than the average 
home minister? 

9. What arguments can you give for paying them 
larger salaries? 

10. What likelihood is there that any one would 
become a foreign missionary from sordid 
motives? 

11. Name the principal sacrifices that a missionary 
is called upon to make. 



Why and How of Foreign Missions 

12. What salary would compensate you for these 
sacrifices if you had no heart interest in the 
work ? 

13. What would you judge as to the relative at- 
tractiveness of the ministry at home and on the 
foreign field from the relative numbers in each 
calling? 

14. What percentage of the missionary force do 
you think would have received larger salaries 
if they had remained at home? 

15. In what degree of t: luxury" ought a mission- 
ary to live? 

16. What are the arguments for and against as 
attractive a Western home as his salary per- 
mits ? 

17. Would it be true economy for the missionary's 
wife to have no servants and do her own 
housework? 

18. In what expense is the board involved when 
a missionary breaks down? 

19. How long would it be before a new volunteer 
would equal a retiring missionary in efficiency? 

20. From a business standpoint what is the relative 
importance of care of health by a missionary 
and a home minister? 

21. Do you think that critics would really remain 
satisfied if missionaries lived as the natives do? 

22. What are the arguments for and against self- 
support by missionaries ? 



Support of Missionary Enterprise 121 

23. Would it ordinarily take more or less time 
for an American to earn his support in this 
country than in China? 

24. How much longer would it take to build up 
a strong native church if the missionaries gave 
only the time not required for self-support to 
the work? 

25. Would the missionary force be increased in 
efficiency if the policy of self-supporting mis- 
sionaries were adopted? 

26. What is there in the case of the Apostle Paul 
that is not parallel? 

27. Is the Christian Church really too poor to pro- 
vide a support for missionaries? 

28. Where does the responsibility rest for seeing 
that the missionary enterprise is properly fi- 
nanced ? 

29. What money do you think you have invested 
more economically and profitably than that 
which you have given to foreign missions? 



THE MISSIONARY AT WORK 



"3 



The practical value of educational missions may be 
inferred from an incident in the work of certain mis- 
sionaries in the interior of Africa. They gave them- 
selves wholly to evangelistic work without any effort at 
education, under the mistaken idea that proclaiming 
the gospel to those who had not heard it was the be- 
ginning and the end of missionary endeavor. After 
years of faithful preaching, the gospels were translated 
into the native language, when it was discovered that 
none could read! — Wilson S. Naylor 

In some missions the evangelistic agency has been 
overshadowed by some other department of activity. 
While the importance of the other agencies must not 
be minimized, the neglect of presenting the gospel would 
be disastrous to the whole missionary enterprise. 
Among the people every effort must be made to heal 
their physical ills, to care for them in distress, to teach 
them the means of obtaining an honest living, to raise 
up an intelligent and efficient leadership, yet it must 
be borne in mind that the dominating purpose of mis- 
sions is to make Christ preeminent in the lives of the 
millions. If any department may be magnified it is 
the evangelistic, but unquestionably the wiser plan is to 
have all these vital agencies permeated with the spirit 
of winning the allegiance of the people to the Master. 

— James M. Thoburn 



124 



V 



THE MISSIONARY AT WORK 
HE variety and scope of the foreign mis- ^Missionary's 



A sionary's work are in sharp contrast 
with the work of the minister at home. The 
latter hardly realizes to what an extent his 
efforts are reinforced by the results of cen- 
turies of religious teaching. These helps do 
not exist in most non-christian lands, and 
therefore the missionary must create them. 
He must found not only churches, but schools, 
hospitals, printing-presses, kindergartens, or- 
phanages, and the various other kinds of 
Christian and benevolent work carried on in 
this country. He must train up a native min- 
istry, erect buildings, translate and print 
books and tracts and catechisms. The 
gospel must be so presented as to touch 
the lives of men at many points, and 
they must be helped in making the adaptation 
to new conditions. In some lands, the mis- 
sionary must even teach the men how to make 
clothing, to build houses, and to cultivate the 
soil ; while his wife must show the women how 
to sew and to cook, to care for children and 
to make a decent home. 




126 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



wido S Rang n e d The P nrase "missionary at work" is there- 
fore not a misnomer. Those who imagine 
that "missionaries have an easy time" little 
realize the heavy and persistent toil that is in- 
volved in missionary effort. Foreign mis- 
sionaries are among the hardest worked men 
in the world. Much of this work, too, is done 
in unfavorable climates and amid conditions 
that tell heavily upon the strength and 
nerves. The typical hospital, with work 
enough for two or three physicians, has but 
one medical missionary, and he must perform 
every operation and attend every sick patient, 
save for such native assistants as he may be 
able to snatch a little time to train. Schools, 
which at home would have a half dozen or 
more teachers, have but one or tw r o. The or- 
dained missionary often finds himself obliged 
to unite the adaptability of a jack-of -all- 
trades to the functions of an archbishop. 
L?nes Main ^he ordinary work of the foreign mission- 
ary is along four main lines. Probably the 
first impression of the traveler is of the 

Educational Work 

?hVA?Fd e ren of This is partly because it is represented by 
institutions that are more conspicuous, partly 
because children are much in evidence in a 
typical heathen city. They are sweet-faced, 
bright-eyed children, to whom one is in- 



The Missionary at Work 



127 



stinctively drawn. One hears the patter of 
their wooden sandals in the streets of Japan. 
He sees their quaintly grave faces in the rice- 
fields of China. He never wearies of watch- 
ing their brown, chubby little bodies on the 
river banks of Siam. His heart aches as he 
sees their emaciated limbs and wan looks in 
India. Everywhere their features are so ex- 
pressive, that he feels that they ought to have 
a better chance in life and that he ought to 
help them to get it, while new meaning irradi- 
ates the words: "It is not the will of your 
Father .... that one of these little ones 
should perish." 

In this spirit, one of the first and most lov- |heir°Benefi C en 
ing duties of the missionary is to gather these Service 
children into schools and to teach them for 
this life and the life to come. Day-schools of 
primary grade are, of course, the most nu- 
merous and they reach myriads of little ones. 
Above them are the boarding-schools, where 
children are under the continuous care of the 
missionary. If he be a benefactor of the race 
who makes two blades of grass grow where 
one grew before, what shall be said of the mis- 
sionary who takes a half-naked urchin out of 
the squalor of a mud hut, w r here both sexes 
and all ages herd like pigs, teaches him to 
bathe himself, to respect woman, to tell the 
truth, to earn an honest living, and to serve 



128 Why and How of Foreign Missions 

God. It means even more for the girls than 
for the boys, for heathenism, which venerates 
animals, despises women. In sacred Benares, 
India, I saw a man make reverent way for a 
cow, and a little farther on roughly push a 
woman out of his path. I saw monkeys in 
the protected luxury of a temple, while at its 
gates starving girls begged for bread. Is 
there any work more Christlike than the 
gathering of these neglected ones into clean 
dormitories and showing them the meaning of 
virtue, of industry, and of that which does not 
exist throughout all the pagan world, except 
where the gospel has made it, a pure, sweet 
Christian home? 

Colleges and normal, medical, and theolog- 
ical schools take the more promising grad- 
uates of the boarding-schools and train them 
for special work among their own people. 
The equipment of these institutions is often 
very humble as compared with the magnifi- 
cent buildings of many of our home colleges ; 
but we may safely challenge Europe and 
America to show colleges which have achieved 
more solid results with such limited resources. 
Many a mission college turns out well-trained 
men on an income that would hardly keep a 
home university in lights and fuel. 

These schools and colleges are exerting an 
enormous influence. They lead many students 



The Missionary at Work 129 



to Christ. They undermine the superstitions 
and dispel the prejudices of many who are 
not immediately converted. They give the 
missionary access to new villages and zenanas 
and familiarize the heathen mind with Chris- 
tian conceptions. They often form the most 
effective means of reaching the upper 
classes. Scores of mission schools are edu- 
cating the sons and daughters of officials, 
noblemen, and in some countries, of royal 
princes. 

An interesting illustration of the oppor- 
tunities thus created occurred in Bangkok, 
Siam. A nobleman, whom the missionary 
had vainly tried to lead to Christ, sent his 
only son to the Christian Boys' High School. 
A year or two later, in an epidemic of cholera, 
the boy died. The missionary gently told the 
stricken parents of the Good Shepherd, who 
sometimes took a lamb in his arms to induce 
the sheep to follow him. Deeply moved, the 
father sketched an outline of the incident and 
bade an artist paint it. He showed us the 
picture : a shepherd, with a kindly face, carry- 
ing a lamb in his bosom, while afar off two 
sheep, which had been walking away, were 
turning with wistful eyes to follow their 
loved one. "Now," said the nobleman, "I 
want to give 10,000 Heeds to build a church 
in recognition of God's dealings with me 



130 Why and How of Foreign Missions 

through my boy." And we said: It is as 
true now as of old that "a little child shall 
lead them." 

ingiy chrisTin All mission schools are uncompromisingly 
Christian. The Bible is the chief text-book. 
Jesus is the great Teacher. Prayer is the 
atmosphere. Japan tested missionary fidelity 
to this position. All avenues of preferment 
lead from the schools which have government 
recognition. The mission schools were thus 
recognized; but one day, the Minister of State 
for Education issued an order forbidding any 
religious instruction in schools approved by 
the government. The missionaries had to 
choose that day whom they would serve. 
Severance from the government system of 
education meant that students would be, in 
effect, debarred from the university and from 
many positions that are coveted by the pa- 
triotic Japanese. But the missionaries and the 
boards said: "We cannot use missionary- 
funds to give the young people of Asia a 
purely secular education; we are here for 
Christ's sake, and for his only." The result 
was that some schools had to be closed and 
that the attendance of others dwindled from 
hundreds to dozens. It looked for a time as 
if the end of mission educational work in 
Japan had come ; but a mighty protest went 
up from the Christian people of all lands. 



The Missionary at Work 131 



The public opinion of Christendom, to which 
Japan is keenly sensitive, made her statesmen 
feel that a backward step had been taken. 
The order was not enforced, and to-day the 
mission schools are fuller than ever and with 
a tremendously enhanced influence, because 
in the hour of emergency, they would not buy 
the favor of the state at the cost of their 
faith. The missionary repudiates the state- 
ment of a professor at home that "the uni- 
versity is not responsible for the character of 
its graduates." Character is precisely what 
mission institutions are responsible for, and 
in the schools and colleges on the foreign field, 
the Church is producing it. 

The hope of the future is largely in these | r r |f u k j? c g e Down 
schools. In many lands, the missionary en- 
counters an opposition from adults that can 
only be compared to a wall. It is often diffi- 
cult to break down that wall by direct attack; 
for inherited prejudices, social, business, and 
religious associations, and that fixity of char- 
acter which usually comes with mature years 
in every land combine to make it hard to in- 
duce an adult to abandon the faith of his an- 
cestors. The mission school undermines that 
wall. It takes character at a plastic period 
and shapes it for the future. 

The opening of Asia to the influences of Among C Asiatic 
the modern world and the development of Nation * 



132 Why and How of Foreign Missions 

the native churches give special emphasis to 
the question of higher education. The need 
is emphasized by the fact that leading Asiatic 
nations are beginning to appreciate the im- 
portance of Western learning and are estab- 
lishing colleges of their own. Hindu, Bud- 
dhist, and Moslem institutions will not, of 
course, train men for Christian leadership. The 
Churches must provide the needed facilities or 
see their young men go to schools dominated 
by antichristian influences. That the boards 
and the missions realize this is seen in the 
fact that there are now on the foreign field no 
less than 29,000 mission schools, of which 
more than 1,300 are of the higher grades, the 
total number of pupils being 1,304,905. 

Another department of missionary ac- 
tivity is 

Literary Work 

History has proved that a knowledge of 
the Word of God is indispensable to intelli- 
gent and permanent faith. Therefore one of 
the duties of the missionary is to translate the 
Bible into the vernacular. We often hear that 
the Bible is now accessible to practically all 
the nations of the earth. It is true, and the 
missionary is the one who has made it so. 

Bible translation, however, is not all of this 
work. Many books and tracts must be pre- 



The Missionary at Work 133 



pared. Most of the literature of the heathen 
world is unclean. There are, indeed, some ex- 
cellent writings in the sacred books of Hin- 
duism, Buddhism, and Confucianism; but at 
their best, they are merely ethical and 
are intermingled with a vast mass of error, 
puerility, and superstition. The books in 
common circulation are usually saturated 
with heathenism, if not actual immorality. The 
missionary, therefore, must create a Christian 
literature. This involves both translation and 
original composition. 

Publishing has to follow preparation. 
Many lands had no printing-presses when the 
missionary arrived; so he had to create and 
operate them. He was among the first to 
see the providential significance of movable 
type and the application of steam to the print- 
ing-press. To-day, 160 presses are conducted 
by the Protestant mission boards in various 
parts of the world, and they issue annually 
about 400,000,000 pages of a Christian liter- 
ature and the Word of God. The mission 
presses in Shanghai are exerting an enormous 
influence on the thought of one third of the 
human race, one of them printing over 97,000,- 
000 pages a year. An interesting illustra- 
tion of this occurred when 10,000 Christian 
women of China presented a copy of the New 
Testament, bound in silver and gold, to the 



134 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



Empress Dowager on her sixtieth birthday. 
The gift excited so much interest in the im- 
perial palace that the Emperor purchased a 
copy for his own use. 
Effec r ts achinff That Chinese Bible has gone into many a 
yamen as well as into myriads of humble 
homes. A medical missionary, calling on the 
late Viceroy Li Hung-chang, found him read- 
ing a New Testament printed on the Shanghai 
mission press, and when a servant took the 
book away as the physician entered, the 
Viceroy said : "Do not put that in the library, 
take it to my bedroom, I will read it again." 
The mission press in Beirut, Syria, is prob- 
ably doing as much as all other agencies com- 
bined to influence the Mohammedan world; 
for there the Bible is printed in the language 
that is spoken by two hundred million souls. 
Scriptures and explanatory books and tracts 
go forth from that unpretentious building, 
which are read not only in Syria and Pales- 
tine, but in Asia Minor, Arabia, Egypt, 
Tunis, Algeria, Morocco, India, and among 
the Arabic speaking colonies of North and 
South America. 
Bible societies The Bible Societies give valuable coopera- 
tion in this department of mission work, pay- 
ing the cost of printing the Scriptures, and, 
through their agents and colporteurs, aiding 
greatly in distributing them. These Societies 



The Missionary at Work 



135 



should therefore be considered an integral 
and a very important part of this large de- 
velopment of missionary effort. 

Emphasis may properly be laid upon literary p°£ t e e r d of the 
work as a missionary agency. The peoples of Messa & e 
Asia are not so much accustomed to public 
discourse as Western races. The priests 
of the native religions seldom or never 
preach, and it is much more difficult to influ- 
ence people in that way than it is in England 
and America. The Chinese, in particular, are 
preeminently a people of books. Buddhism 
converted them, not by preaching, but by litera- 
ture. The essay, the pamphlet, the placard, 
and more recently the newspaper, are 
the common means of disseminating ideas. 
Christianity must make a larger use of this 
method if it is to supersede Buddhism and 
Confucianism. 

The printed Bible goes where the living ^Lunation 
voice cannot be heard. It brings its truths to 
men in the quiet hour. The force of its mes- 
sage is never lessened by controversy or per- 
verted by error. Within a century, over 200,- 
000,000 copies of the Bible have been printed 
in 360 different languages. If every mission- 
ary were to be banished, God's Word would 
remain in Asia, a mighty and indestructible 
power, operating as silently as the sunshine, 
but containing within itself the stupendous 



136 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



potency of a world's regeneration. To-day, 
the Persian and the Hottentot, the Korean and 
the Siamese are reading in their own tongues 
that "He is able to save them to the utter- 
most that come unto God by him," and we 
know that God's Word shall not return unto 
him void. 

A phase of missions that touches all hearts 
is the 

Medical Work 
Example Christ himself set the example by minister- 

of Christ . \ J 

ing to the sick. Indeed, he cited among the 
proofs of his Messiahship that "the blind re- 
ceive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers 
are cleansed, and the deaf hear." Twenty- 
four of his thirty-six recorded miracles were 
of physical healing, and there must have been 
scores of others, for we read that "all they 
that had any sick .... brought them 
unto him; and he laid his hands on every one 
of them, and healed them." So medical work 
is an essential part of our Christian service in 
heathen lands. We cannot "pass by on the 
other side" those countless sufferers or shut 
our ears to their cries of agony. 
? ain . . Non-christian lands are lands of pain. All 

Aggravated by i r 

superstition the diseases and injuries common in America, 
and others far more dreadful, are intensified 
by ignorance, filth, and superstition. An 
Oriental tour fills the mind with ghastly 



The Missionary at Work 137 

memories of sightless eyeballs, scrofulous 
limbs, and festering ulcers. If our child is 
ill, a physician's understanding of the case 
and its remedy, the sympathy of friends, and 
the sweet comforts of the gospel, make the 
sick chamber a place of peace and probable 
recovery. But in most heathen lands, illness 
is believed to be caused by a demon that has 
gotten into the body, and the treatment is an 
effort to expel it. Drums are beaten or horns 
blown beside the sufferer, in the hope that 
they will frghten away the demon. Hot 
fires are built to scorch it out, and of course 
the fierce heat adds to the distress of the pa- 
tient. Sometimes even worse methods are 
employed. "What are those scars which so 
thickly dot the body?" we asked Dr. Neal, in 
China, as he examined a wan, pitiful little 
girl who had been brought in. "Places where 
hot needles have been thrust in to kill the 
spirit which is believed to have caused the 
pain," was the startling reply. "What a hor- 
rible foot!" we ejaculated, as we looked with 
Dr. Avison in Korea on a poor fellow who 
had hobbled into our room. A fall had made 
a bruise. A native doctor had told him that 
a demon had taken possession of it and that 
he should smear it with oil and set it on fire. 
Dirt and flies had aggravated the resultant 
sore, till the foot was literally rotting away. 



138 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



wonderful The horrors of superstitious maltreatment 
of the sick and injured are relieved in many 
lands only by medical missionaries who walk 
through those regions of pain in the name 
and spirit of the Great Physician, cleansing 
filthy ulcers, straightening deformed limbs, 
giving light to darkened eyes, healing fevered 
bodies, robbing death of its sting and the 
grave of its victory, and showing to weary 
multitudes that 

'Thy touch has still its ancient power, 
Xo word from thee can fruitless fall." 

uc Ministry j n Syrian city of Hums we saw the sick 
flock go to Dr. Harris as of old they doubtless 
flocked to Christ, and he gave such relief to 
scores of sufferers that men who would have 
stoned a preacher reverently listened to the 
physician while he talked to them of Christ. 
The day we entered Allahabad, India, 170 
people died of the plague. Corpses were 
hourly carried through the streets. Shops 
were closed. The authorities, finding that 
preventive measures provoked dangerous 
riots, helplessly allowed the pestilence to run 
unchecked. Half the population had fled ; but 
the medical missionary stood heroically at her 
post, freely going among the sick and dying, 
responding both by day and night to every 
appeal for help, giving what aid was possible 



The Missionary at Work 139 



in that swiftly fatal scourge, and telling all 
of the healing of the soul in Christ. Few men 
anywhere will touch a leper, but the medical 
missionaries lovingly seek them in a score of 
places, mitigating the horrors of a disease for 
which no cure is known and faithfully apply- 
ing the remedy for the soul's leprosy. 

A total of over 1,100 hospitals and dispen- An impressive 
saries are being maintained on the foreign field 
by the Protestants and Anglicans, treating 
yearly about 2,500,000 patients. No other 
phase of mission work has done more to soften 
hearts and to open doors, no other been more 
fruitful in spiritual results. Standing in one 
of those humble buildings and watching the 
tender ministries to suffering, one feels sure 
that God loves the place, and he rejoices that 
in Asia as well as in America, men can say: 

"The healing of the seamless dress 

Is by our bed of pain; 
We touch him in life's throng and press, 
And we are whole again." 

An unqualified statement that the fourth ^\^^ s 
department of missionary activity is Evangelistic 

Evangelistic Work 

might give a wrong impression, for all forms 
of work are supposed to be evangelistic in 



140 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



spirit and in aim. Educational work is de- 
signed to reach the children for Christ and 
to train men for the ministry and other 
forms of Christian work. Literary work pre- 
pares and publishes the Bible and a helpful 
literature, that all may know the gospel 
by the printed page as well as by the 
spoken word. Medical work is intended not 
only to relieve suffering, but to do it in Christ's 
name and in such ways that the patients will 
accept Christ. There remains, however, much 
work that is distinctively evangelistic. Its mag- 
nitude may be inferred from the fact that there 
are now no less than 1 1,000 organized churches 
and a large number of unorganized congrega- 
tions, with 1,816,450 adult communicants and 
4>35 I > 1 38 adherents, of whom 1,272,383 are 
enrolled inquirers. 
£ineratk>ls and The direct preaching of the gospel naturally 
has a prominent place. There is an increasing 
number of churches in which there are stated 
sermons; but the main evangelistic work is 
done in less pretentious, though not less ef- 
fective ways. The message is proclaimed in 
humble street chapels, in crowded bazaars, in 
secluded zenanas, from house to house, and 
on long country tours. The itinerations 
often occupy several months and include 
the visitation of hundreds of villages. All 
sorts of conveyances are used. Elephants, 



The Missionary at Work 141 



camels, horses, mules, donkeys, canoes, 
launches, schooners, house-boats, wheelbar- 
rows, jinrikishas, bandy-carts, bicycles, and 
railroad trains, all serve the missionary's pur- 
pose as occasion offers, while not infrequently 
he travels on foot. 

There are no bounds to the zeal of the itiner- Ze aious Ton 
ant missionary. A toilsome journey on ele- 
phants through the jungles of Laos brought 
us to Saturday night with the weary ejacula- 
tion: "Now we can have a day of rest!" 
The next morning we slept late; but the mis- 
sionaries did not, for they spent an hour be- 
fore breakfast in a neighboring village, dis- 
tributing tracts and inviting the people to 
come to a service at our camp at ten o'clock. 
It was an impressive service — under a spread- 
ing bo tree, with the mighty forest about us, 
monkeys curiously peering through the 
tangled vines, the huge elephants browsing on 
the bamboo tips behind us, and the wonder- 
ing people sitting on the ground, while one 
of the missionaries told the deathless story of 
redeeming love. The other missionary, Dr. 
Daniel McGilvary, was not present. Seventy- 
four years old though he was, he had walked 
three miles under a scorching sun to another 
village, and was preaching there. And we 
said : "If that is the way the missionaries 
rest, what do they do when they work?" 



142 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



fSdeHty This * s but a sample of the evangelistic 
fidelity that we saw everywhere. Missionaries 
whose immediate assignments are to medical 
or educational work take their turns in coun- 
try touring. A physician in Africa never did 
a better thing for Christ than on a trip of 
which he wrote : 
Tour Cruiting returned last week from a tour of seven- 

teen days through the Utum country. The wet 
season was at its worst. All the rivers were 
flooded and the swamps were terrible to get 
through. Almost every day. I waded in water 
waist deep, sometimes for hours at a time. 
Much of my trip was through a country 
from which we had never been able to get 
any schoolboys, as the people were afraid to 
let them go so far from home and with white 
men of whom they knew but little. I went 
w ith the determination not only to preach the 
gospel, but to bring back with me some boys 
for our school. I knew if I could get a few 
for a start, we would get plenty in years to 
come. The Lord answered my prayers, and 
when we marched back through streams and 
forests, about seventy prospective pupils went 
with me. That long line of children, so 
ignorant and needy, some footsore and weary, 
marching away from their homes of darkness 
and sin towards the light of the dear Savior 
who died for them, was a sight which would 



The Missionary at Work 143 



move a heart of stone. Sometimes a mother 
in parting from her child would follow along 
for miles and then take me by the hands, and 
with tears rolling down her cheeks, say: 
'Doctor, that is my only child, you will take 
good care of him, won't you ?' Human nature 
is very much the same here as elsewhere." 

Claims of Other Work 
Reform movements in a community natu- * eform 

J Movements 

rally grow out of spiritual work, but there is a 
difference of opinion as to the missionary's 
direct relation to them. Some urge that the 
missionary should not concern himself at all 
with such movements, his efforts being to instil 
in the minds of men the formative principles 
of the Christian religion and then leave these 
to work their legitimate results through saved 
men. 

Others, however, insist that the missionary ^fhe** 100 
cannot be indifferent to the practical applica- Poetical Gospel 
tion of the gospel to human society; that 
when orphans in India are starving, his efforts 
should include bread as well as exhortations; 
that when opium-smoking in China is an 
effectual bar to the entrance of the gos- 
pel, the missionary should ally himself with 
the effort to remove that bar; and that where 
the blind, the insane, the deaf and dumb are 
entirely neglected, the missionary who passes 



144 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



"by on the other side" exposes himself to 
the indignant censure which Christ visited 
upon the heartless, hypocritical priest and 
Levite. 

its cure of ft seems to us that the mediate course is 

Many Evils 

the proper one. The gospel was intended to 
save men both for this life and for the life 
to come, and when a missionary goes among 
people who are wholly ignorant of the bear- 
ings of the gospel upon human life, it is surely 
within his province to show them how to live 
in time as well as eternity. This, as a matter 
of fact, is what the missionaries are doing. 
It is no small evidence of the value of mission 
work that missionaries have founded and are 
maintaining 333 asylums of various kinds for 
the afflicted and dependent classes. Though 
reform movements are results rather than ob- 
jects of the missionary enterprise, they are 
nevertheless of value. Missionaries have done 
more than all others combined to lessen the 
evils of slavery, infanticide, intemperance, 
concubinage, opium-smoking, the degradation 
of woman, and kindred evils. 
Ab^nihed A signal instance of the usefulness of the 
in siam missionary in matters of reform occurred in 
Siam. Gambling is the national vice. It was 
licensed and even encouraged by the govern- 
ment. The demoralizing consequences can be 
readily understood. This vice was vigorously 



The Missionary at Work 145 



combatted by the missionaries, led by the 
Rev. Eugene P. Dunlap and powerfully rein- 
forced by the Hon. Hamilton King, the Ameri- 
can minister. They frankly represented to the 
king that gambling was inimical to the best 
interests of Siam and that the money that the 
government derived from it was obtained at a 
ruinous cost to character and legitimate in- 
dustry. The king listened, and the result was 
the issuance of a royal decree, January, 1905, 
ordering the abolition of these gambling con- 
cessions by April, 1907. 

Another illustration occurred in Shanghai, paiTenSch 
China, where there are about 20,000 Chinese 
prostitutes. Distressed by their pitiful lot, 
Mrs. George F. Fitch opened a rescue home 
to which the slave girls could flee for refuge. 
The home has attracted wide attention and 
it witnesses powerfully for Christ. A high 
official visited it one day with his wife, and 
as he noted the sweet ministries to the fallen, 
he marveled and said to his wife: "Nobody 
but Jesus' people would do this." That sen- 
tence vividly expresses the world-wide dif- 
ference between the Christian and the non- 
christian. It is at once an indictment of Con- 
fucianism and a justification of missions. 
Nobody but "J esus ' people" are doing these 
things. 

It is apparent from all that has been said TimeRec i ui3 



146 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



that the working out of so vast a movement 
as the missionary enterprise will require time. 
This is not a crusade whose object is to be at- 
tained by a magnificent spurt. Error and 
superstition are interwoven with the whole 
social and political fabric of the non-christian 
world and they are not to be overturned in a 
day. "We are," observes Benjamin Kidd, 
"in the midst of habits and institutions from 
which our civilization is separated by a long 
interval of development, w r here progress up- 
ward must be a long, slow process, must pro- 
ceed on native lines, and must be the effect of 
the example and prestige of higher standards 
rather than the result of ruder methods/' 

Most great reconstructions of society have 
come slowly, and religious transformations 
have been no exception. Christianity was 
three hundred years in conquering Rome, and 
even then the Roman world was far from com- 
plete conversion. The gospel has been operat- 
ing on the peoples of northern Europe and 
their descendants for more than a thousand 
years, and no Christian feels that the work 
is done. It is to be hoped that other peoples 
will not take as much time as we took; but 
we cannot reasonably expect that a few decades 
will suffice. 

Moreover, we must count now on more 
certain victory s t re nuous opposition from the non-christian 



Long Process 
in Europe 



Strenuous 
Opposition but 



The Missionary at Work 147 

religions. At first, they were contemptuously 
indifferent to the missionaries. But as the 
priests see more clearly what radical changes 
Christianity involves, that it is "turning the 
world upside down," contempt and indiffer- 
ence are giving place to alarm. The ethnic 
faiths are therefore setting themselves in battle 
array. It would be foolish to ignore their 
power, foolish to imagine that we are seeing 
the lasf of Buddhism in Japan and Siam, of 
Confucianism in China, of Hinduism in 
India, and of Mohammedanism in Turkey. 
Heathenism will die hard. The world, the 
flesh, and the devil are in Asia as well as in 
America, and are fighting more fiercely. It 
is no holiday task to which we have set our- 
selves. It is a gigantic struggle in which there 
are against us "the principalities, the powers, 
the world rulers of this darkness." Need have 
we of patience, of determination, of "the 
strength of his might" and "the whole armor 
of God." We must sternly face our task in 
the spirit of the man of whom Browning said : 
He 

"... never turned his back but marched 
breast-forward; 
Never doubted clouds would break; 
Never dreamed, though right were worsted, 

wrong would triumph; 
Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, 
Sleep to wake." 



148 Why and How of Foreign Missions 

The issue is not doubtful, for, "If God is for 
us, who is against us?" 

QUESTIONS OX CHAPTER V 

Aim : To Realize the Variety and Value of the 
Work Included in the Foreign Missionary 
Enterprise 

1. Write out all the forms of work engaged in by 
missionaries mentioned in the chapter and sug- 
gested to you by reflection. 

2. How many of these are ordinarily engaged in 
by ministers at home? 

3. How does the task of the missionary as a whole 
compare in magnitude and difficulty with that 
of the average minister at home? 

4. In the light of the work needed, reconsider 
your opinion on the subject of the most de- 
sirable qualifications for a missionary. 

5. Reconsider your opinion as to the way in 
which missionary training should differ from 
that of the minister at home. 

6. Need a missionary be qualified along all these 
lines in order to be useful? 

7. In preparing to teach a class of heathen 
children, what things ought a missionary to 
try to find out about their home life? Why? 

8. What, about their personal ideas and atti- 
tudes ? 

9. What, about any past instruction they may 
have received? 



The Missionary at Work 149 

10. What would it be desirable to know about the 
local surroundings and society? 

11. In what way should the curriculum in a mis- 
sionary school differ from that of schools 
of the same grade in this country? 

12. What are some of the difficulties that a mis- 
sionary teacher must expect to encounter? 

13. What should be his principal educational aims ? 

14. In view of the aim of missionary work, why 
is it so important for the missionary to es- 
tablish elementary schools? 

15. Why are higher schools necessary? 

16. What are the advantages of boarding-schools 
over day-schools? 

17. What things besides the language ought a mis- 
sionary to know in order to be a successful 
translator ? 

18. What advantages has the literary over any 
other of the forms of work? 

19. What various kinds of literature ought to be 
distributed in order to build up a strong native 
Church ? 

20. What are the special advantages of medical 
work as a missionary agency? 

21. What measures would you take to secure the 
greatest evangelistic efficiency in a dispensary 
and hospital? 

22. In what ways should missionary addresses 
differ from sermons in this country? 

23. What things ought the missionary to study 
in preparing his addresses? 



150 Why and How of Foreign Missions 

24. Why is it important for him to be well ac- 
quainted with local customs? 

25. What special advantages has the evangelistic 
missionary over those engaged in other forms 
of work? 

26. Which of these four forms of work does most 
on the whole to build up the native Church? 
Give several reasons for your opinion. 

27. In what ways is each of these forms a nec- 
essary supplement to the other three? 

28. Has Christianity a message only for the in- 
dividual, or for society as well? 

29. Have Christians in this country any duty to 
society except to evangelize it? 

30. What should be the attitude of the mission- 
ary toward non-christian society as a whole? 

31. What reasons have we for believing that the 
progress of Christianity on the foreign field 
will be more rapid than it was in Europe? 

32. Sum up the principal needs of the work on 
the field. 



THE NATIVE CHURCH 



151 



As to mission Church administration, for the sake of 
the future of the Church the missionary should train 
the churches with a view to speedy self-government and 
self-propagation. Some missionaries possessed of a 
strong individuality assume in themselves all the func- 
tions of the executive; they are in themselves Bishop, 
priest, deacon; and with their strong personality and 
fulness of energy they have not the patience to bend 
to the drudgery of training natives ; therefore they take 
all of the responsibility upon themselves. But this only 
means disaster in the future, for when the strong man 
leaves the field, his work falls to pieces. For the sake 
of the Church and for the future of the Church we 
must subordinate self and selfish tendencies and bend 
our energies to get the best we can out of the native 
Christians. — Frederick Galpin 

The use of mission funds should be limited to the 
support of missionaries, the issue of literature, the 
founding of schools and hospitals and their support, 
and some help in the erection of church buildings. Con- 
verts should from the first be instructed in the necessity 
of sharing the burdens of Church work. The self-sup- 
port of native churches should be facilitated by sim- 
plicity of organization, to the extent even, if necessary, 
of delaying for a time the full development of the 
pastorate. — George B. Winton 



i5* 



VI 



THE NATIVE CHURCH 

THE development of a native Church is communicants 
r and Adherents, 

one of the most encouraging results of pr g t 1 e i sta 1 nt nd 
foreign missionary effort. The number of 
adult communicants on the foreign field is now 
(1908) 1,816,450. There are, besides, 1,272,383 
adults who, having professed their faith in 
Christ, have been enrolled as catechumens and 
inquirers and are under special instruction with 
a view to full membership in the near future, 
while adherents number 4,351,138. The word 
"adherent" has a more definite meaning on the 
foreign, field than at home, for it usually signi- 
fies that a member of a non-christian com- 
munity has publicly separated himself, in name 
and position at least, from the religion of his 
country, and though not yet ready, in the judg- 
ment of the missionaries, to be baptized, he 
attends the church, and is willing to be known 
by his neighbors as a Christian. 

This already considerable native Church is ^Jlio^Poifcy 
growing at the rate of nearly 150,000 com- 
municants a year. The development of such a 
Church naturally brings into prominence cer- 

153 



154 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



tain questions of mission policy. We have al- 
ready seen that the aim of the missionary enter- 
prise includes the development of an indigenous 
native Church. To this end, the native Church 
must be trained to self-propagation, self-sup- 
port, and self-government, 
seif-propagation Self-propagation is insisted upon as soon as 
converts appear. They are taught from the 
beginning that as soon as they become Chris- 
tians, the missionary motive should become 
operative within them, and that they are under 
precisely the same obligation as Christians in 
Europe and America to give the knowledge of 
Christ to others. 
chris^andPaSi This was the way Christ himself worked 
during his earthly ministry. He preached both 
to individuals and to multitudes wherever and 
whenever he had opportunity; but one of his 
chief efforts was to train up a band of disciples 
to perpetuate and extend the work after his de- 
parture. Paul also worked in this w r ay. He 
w r ould go to a city, preach the gospel, gather a 
band of disciples, organize them into a church, 
remain long enough to get them fairly started, 
and then go elsewhere. 
M h ay S Take Zinff The modern missionary will have to remain 
a good deal longer than Paul did, for he does 
not find such prepared conditions as the great 
apostle found in the Jews of the dispersion. A 
land may be evangelized in a generation, but 



Centuries 



The Native Church 



Alone 



the Christianizing of it may be the toilsome 
process of centuries. Moreover, when the ob- 
ject has been attained in one country, the re- 
sponsibility of the missionary and of the home 
Church will not cease, but simply be transferred 
to other populations. It is a long campaign 
upon which we have entered, but we should 
resolutely keep our purpose in mind. 

This is not only wise in itself from the view- SSStilnL to 
point of the success and permanence of the Missionaries 
work, but it is absolutely necessary from the 
view-point of the men and money that are 
available. It is impossible for the Churches of 
Europe and America to send out and maintain 
enough missionaries to preach the gospel effec- 
tively to all of the thousand millions of the 
unevangelized world. To attempt this would 
be as foolish as it would be for a government 
to make an army out of major-generals, while 
making no provision for subalterns, non-com- 
missioned officers, and privates. 

Appeals to flood the foreign field with mis- 
sionaries ignore the part that the native 
Church is to play in its evangelization. They 
apparently assume that the native Christians 
have no responsibility for making Christ known 
to their countrymen, or that they will not dis- 
charge it, and that the entire burden of evan- 
gelizing rests so exclusively upon foreigners 
that the people will never hear the gospel unless 



The Native 
Workers Must 
Reach the 
Masses 



156 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



great numbers of white men are sent to preach 
it. Such an assumption is fundamentally 
wrong. The native worker is better for this 
direct evangelism anyway. He can live more 
economically than a foreigner, and he has a 
knowledge of native idioms and ways of think- 
ing and manners and customs that no foreigner 
can ever obtain. Moreover, there is no gulf 
of race between him and his countrymen. 
There is much about the Asiatic and the 
African that will ever remain inscrutable to the 
American and the European. The former, in 
particular, is apt to be secretive and to make 
his outward manner a mask behind which there 
may be thoughts wholly unsuspected by a for- 
eigner. But the native helper is able to get 
behind that mask, and just because he is a na- 
tive, and probably one of superior force of 
character, the people will be more influenced by 
him than by the missionary. 
Ar?M C a°d n e V by ts The late Bishop Ingle, of Hankow, said that 
Native Helpers ^1^^ G f hi s wor k wa s the native clergy. 

Another of our experienced missionaries in the 
same region said recently : "I cannot remember 
having baptized any one who was not brought 
to me by a native Christian, except those who 
came to our schools as pupils. All foreign mis- 
sionaries say with Saint Paul, concerning their 
native leaders, 'Now we live if ye stand fast in 
the Lord/ " 



The Native Church 



iS7 



This is not meant to minimize the need of 
reinforcements. The present force is far too 
small for effective superintendence in many 
fields. The home Church should not relax its 
efforts to provide a more adequate supply of 
foreign workers; but while it is doing this, 
the missions should give more persistent effort 
to the development of a native agency, and so 
hasten the establishment of the native Church. 

We are not unmindful of the practical diffi- 
culties that beset this problem. In hardly any 
other part of the mission work is there so much 
need of prudence. Hundreds of natives want 
employment who are quite unfit for it. Nor is 
every one who is willing to work without pay 
qualified for efficient service. But these diffi- 
culties, and others that might be mentioned, 
can be overcome. The more successful the 
work, the more essential it is to develop the 
native ministry that is indispensable to conserve 
the evangelistic results already attained and 
which we hope to attain in yet larger measure 
in the future. The work will not be self-sup- 
porting in any proper sense, but on the contrary 
will become ruinously expensive if a large part 
of it must continue to be performed by foreign 
missionaries instead of by a native ministry 
supported by the people. 

The native Church should be led to self- 
support as well as self-propagation. Here, 



Missionary 
Reinforcements 
Still Needed 



Prudence 
Required in 
Using Native 
Ministry 



Native Self- 
support Also 
Desirable 



158 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



also, the difficulties are formidable. The mis- 
sionary goes to the heathen representing not 
only a superior, but a more expensive type of 
civilization. His scale of living, while mod- 
erate from our view-point, appears to them 
princely. Centuries of abject poverty and of 
despotic government have predisposed most 
Orientals to accept with eagerness whatever 
is given them. Accustomed to living, or 
rather half-starving, on an income of from 
thirty to one hundred dollars a year, the na- 
tive regards the missionary on a salary of 
Si, 000 not only as an individual of wealth, 
but as the representative of untold riches in 
the homeland. He is therefore tempted to go 
to him for the sake of the loaves and fishes, 
and this temptation is enormously strength- 
ened if he gets the impression that the mis- 
sionary may employ him as a helper, or that 
some individual or society in America may 
support him. 

The missionary, in turn, is tempted to the 
free use of money by the wretchedness of the 
people and by the prospect of the visible re- 
sults which may be temporarily secured by a 
liberal financial policy. Would-be converts 
flock to him in such circumstances; many 
helpers can be hired to apparent advantage, 
and buildings can be cheaply rented and fur- 
nished. But if he yields to the temptation, 



The Native Church 159 



"he puts himself and the young Church in a 
false relation at the outset. It is better to 
teach the converts to make their own arrange- 
ments, the missionary guiding by advice from; 
his larger experience of their probable require- 
ments, and only in the last resort giving pe- 
cuniary help." 1 

On this point we must be increasingly firm. M^Jfit 
Leading an able-bodied man to Christ does support 66 
not involve responsibility for his temporal 
support. He made his living before his con- 
version; why should he not do so after it? 
Persecution may hinder him for a time; but 
better far that he should suffer a little than 
that he should be pauperized at the outset. 
Christianity does not unnerve a man. It in- 
creases his ability to fight the battles of life. 
No native should be allowed to- get the im- 
pression that if he becomes a Christian, he 
will be given work and a salary, even though 
the work be so sacred a one as preaching the 
gospel. 

Our duty is to start Christianity in Asia, f el chlrac^ al 
not to carry it, to give the gospel, to found 
its institutions, to aid them so far as necessary 
in their infancy, but to insist that as soon as 
practicable they shall stand upon their own 
feet. We must be patient and reasonable; 



1 Gibson, Mission Problems and Mission Methods in South 
China, 193. 



i6o Why and How of Foreign Missions 



for now, as of old, it is the common people 
who hear Christ gladly, and in Asia the com- 
mon people are pitifully poor. We must not 
withdraw aid so rapidly as to injure the work. 
But the spirit of self-help is as vital to char- 
acter abroad as it is at home. Strength comes 
with independence, and we must not devital- 
ize the Christians of Asia by indiscriminate 
and unnecessary charity. 
forN V a e th?e ney There is of course a legitimate use of for- 
toe Goaf eign money in the earlier stages of the work. 

Infancy must be helped. The boards should 
make such appropriations as an equitable dis- 
tribution of funds will permit for the employ- 
ment of native evangelists and helpers; but 
the number should be limited to real needs 
and the salary should be only that which will 
enable them to live near the plane of their 
countrymen, while they should be made to un- 
derstand clearly that this pecuniary arrange- 
ment is temporary. We must insist, in season 
and out of season, line upon line and precept 
upon precept, that while the missionary, being 
a foreigner, will be maintained by the people of 
America, the native workers must not look to 
the boards, but to their own people, for their 
permanent support. It will take a long time 
to reach it, but the ideal should be foreign 
money for foreign missionaries and native 
money for native workers. 



The Native Church 161 



We should resist the temptation to an arti- siif^SppoSn? 
ficial growth which the free use of money can Ghurch 
beget. A Church developed by foreign money 
is built on quicksand. One self-reliant Church 
is worth more to the cause of Christ than a 
dozen dependent ones. There must, of course, 
be due regard to local conditions. Neither 
the missions nor the boards should violently 
revolutionize in fields where the opposite pol- 
icy has been long pursued. Self-support can^ 
not be attained by immediately discharging 
all native helpers, or by so reducing the work 
that nothing will be left to support. Change 
must be gradual; but no land will ever be 
evangelized until it has a self-supporting na- 
tive Church. Let us work and give and pray 
for this essential aim of missionary effort. 

In this connection it may be well to state l^Lting 
that appeals made in the United States by in- country inthis 
dividual Orientals for financial assistance in 
order that each may "return and preach the 
gospel to his own people," should be referred 
to the proper missionary board for investiga- 
tion and action. Only natives of strong Chris- 
tian character and thorough Christian educa- 
tion in native mission schools are likely to be 
made better missionaries by a foreign educa- 
tion. Only those whose special gifts point to 
the probability of their rising to leading po- 
sitions in the native Church, requiring unusu- 



1 62 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



Self- 
government 



ally wide understanding of national and re- 
ligious problems, need the most complete 
education possible. For such men the Mission- 
ary Bishop and the Board of Missions are glad 
to secure a postgraduate course in the United 
States. Experience has shown that native con- 
verts can be most economically and effectively 
trained for Christian work in their own country 
in the institutions which are now in operation 
in almost every mission field, and which have 
been founded at considerable expense chiefly 
for this purpose. 

The self-government of the native Church 
aiso an Aim } s an equally essential part of the missionary 
aim, though it may not be so quickly realized. 
Nevertheless, its ultimate attainment should 
shape our policy, and the native Church should 
be stimulated to self-support and self-propa- 
gation by being frequently reminded that both 
are indispensable prerequisities to independ- 
ence. It is as idle in Asia as in America to 
imagine that men can live on the money of 
others without ultimately becoming dependent 
upon them. 

As for the missionary, he should frankly 
Native church say of the native C hurch what John the Bap- 
tist said of Christ: "He must increase, but 
I must decrease.'' If there is ever to be a 
self-supporting, self-governing, and self-prop- 
agating native Church, we must anticipate the 



Increasing 
Control by the 



The Native ChurcH 



163 



time when it will be in entire control. More 
and more definitely should missionary policy 
recognize the part that this growing Church 
ought to have in the work. In the past, the 
typical missionary has been primarily an 
evangelist to the heathen. He had to be, for 
his was often the only voice from which the 
message could be heard. The mission has 
been paramount and has been expected to run 
everything. Whatever was wanted, the board 
was asked to supply. But a native Church has 
now been created, and from now on we must 
concede its due share of responsibility for 
making the gospel known and for directing 
the general work. Many things need to be 
done in non-christian lands which it is not 
the function of the boards to do. Our busi- 
ness is to plant Christianity and help to get it 
started, and then educate it to take care of 
itself. 

It is true that, in some lands, the native gjjjj ^ e Fo1 
Church is yet in its infancy, and that it should JimfnishTr 
have aid and counsel; but we should hold Authorit y 
resolutely in view the principle that the mis- 
sion is a temporary and diminishingly author- 
itative body, and that the native Church is a 
permanent and increasingly authoritative body. 
Even though the mission remains a century 
or more, as it must in some lands, this funda- 
mental distinction should not be overlooked. 



164 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



Embarrassment ^ takes a great deal of grace for the mis- 
to Missionaries s i onar y > after having been the supreme au- 
thority for years, to accept a place subordin- 
ate to that of the natives whom he has trained. 
Missionaries in some fields already find them- 
selves in this position, and they would hardly 
be human if they did not feel uncomfortable. 
The spirit of independence has become so in- 
tense in Japan that many of the native leaders 
would have the Church refuse to recognize a 
congregation or preacher that receives foreign 
aid. Such a spirit of self-sacrificing inde- 
pendence is far more hopeful than flabby and 
supine acquiescence in external leadership. We 
cannot, however, view some phases of the situ- 
ation without anxiety, nor can we fail to dis- 
cern how r embarrassing the position of the 
missionaries must be. 
Mamta&eS The ^' ime rec L u i re d for each group of native 
Christians to develop into an independent na- 
tional Church depends upon racial and national 
characteristics, upon economic conditions, and 
upon local environment. The relative strength 
of the impulses for self-support, extension, and 
self-government varies in different mission 
fields, but the triple aim is never forgotten by 
the missionaries and boards. Illustrations of 
this will be given in brief sketches of the 
work of the Church in Africa, Brazil, China, 
and Japan. 



The Native Church 165 



The Church in Liberia, Africa 

In Liberia, white Bishops, clergy, and Seworkers 
teachers trained a staff of native workers and 
built up a Church. Every mission churchyard 
and many a missionary in the United States, 
who has broken down in Liberia, testifies to the 
cost of the work. The Liberian Church may 
well be proud of its martyrs. As a result of 
their work, the Bishop, the clergy, and other 
mission workers, with the exception of the 
principal and two teachers of Saint John's 
School, Cape Mount, in 1908, were all negroes, 
making a complete native ministry. 

The Church is fully organized and in self- ggSSSM 
government is similar to one of our missionary Countr ^ 
districts in the United States. The financial 
resources of the Church and State in Liberia 
have developed slowly. The Republic is not 
rich; its citizens who came from the United 
States brought little or no capital, and several 
generations of slavery had not tended to' de- 
velop the habit of self-support. The native 
tribes that the Liberian colonists found on their 
arrival have been gradually absorbed into the 
Republic, but they brought no working capital 
into the community. The people as a whole, 
through dread of political interference, have 
passed laws making it difficult for white men 
to make business investments in their country. 



1 66 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



Under such conditions wealth in the Church, 
as in the State, grow r s slowly, 
problem of Advocates of self -extension in the Liberian 

Self-extension 

Church have met some of the objections that 
advocates of missions to the American Indians 
met in the early days of Jamestown and that 
Bishop Whipple met in Minnesota, when set- 
tlements were few and Indians many, prejudice 
strong and misunderstandings mutual. The 
political relations of colonists and native tribes 
have made Church extension difficult for the 
Liberian Church. But the effort for self-ex- 
tension is growing and many of the best clergy 
are men of native tribes. 

The Church in Brazil 

Deieiopme S n°t f Th e work of the Brazilian Church was be- 
gun in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, in 1889, 
by two clergy just graduated from the Virginia 
Seminary. They started by establishing 
schools, but almost immediately found that the 
people were ready and anxious for the forma- 
tion of churches, and the mission has developed 
along parish rather than educational lines. 
For the first sixteen years the mission was sup- 
ported by the American Church Missionary So- 
ciety, at the end of which time the financial re- 
sponsibility of the work was accepted by the 
Board of Missions. 



The Native Church 



167 



As early as the year 1897, th e Brazilian church of 
mission had taken the form of an organized ° r s anization 
Church, holding an annual council in which 
representative laymen sat with the foreign and 
native clergy. Local canons were adopted and 
plans formed for carrying on the work. 

In another respect the Brazilian work has gunnings 18 
differed from that in the Far East. It was 
not a mission of the American Episcopal 
Church, but an independent national Church, 
for which a Bishop, elected by its own synod, 
was consecrated by the bishops of the American 
Church, very much as our first Bishop Seabury 
was elected by the representatives of the con- 
gregations in this country in 1784, and con- 
secrated for the Church in the United States 
by the bishops of the Scottish Episcopal 
Church. 

In 1898 the Rev. Lucien Lee Kinsolving was Knowing 
chosen by his fellow workers to be the first 
Bishop of Southern Brazil, and in 1899 re- 
ceived consecration under the authority of the 
House of Bishops. In 1907 the Brazilian 
Church decided to ask the Church in the United 
States, through the General Convention, to 
accept the work in Brazil as one of its mis- 
sions. The General Convention, meeting in 
Richmond in October, 1907, agreed to do this. 
Bishop Kinsolving resigned as a bishop of the 
Church in Brazil and was elected by the Gen- 



168 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



eral Convention as Missionary Bishop of Bra- 
zil. He still retains the title, Bishop of South- 
ern Brazil, although the whole Republic, not 
only the single state of Rio Grande do Sul as 
formerly, is now the field of the American 
Church. 

the churc°h In 1908 the communicants numbered more 
than a thousand, and yearly contributions of 
the churches and mission stations were more 
than ten thousand dollars ; one parish was self- 
supporting and two were rapidly approaching 
that state. Altogether there were seven 
churches and nine chapels, for the construction 
of which liberal offerings had been made in 
the field. The rate at which the Church has 
been extending itself is indicated by the fact 
that although at no time in the history of the 
mission were there more than five foreign 
clergy in the field, the native clergy in 1908 
numbered nine and there were seven study- 
ing for the ministry. The Church in Brazil 
draws from all sorts and conditions of men. 
But she appeals more especially to the artisans 
and the smaller merchants, the people that 
constitute the hope and the heart of the com- 

^ The Church in China 

fnthe Upport F° r many years/ the missionaries have en- 
chmese church ^^Yovtd to inculcate ideas of self-support, and 
the churches have responded with varying 



The Native Church 



169 



degrees of readiness. In nearly all our con- 
gregations, weekly offerings are taken for the 
support of the work. Pledges are made an- 
nually for the support of the parish, but in 
many cases the response has not been all that 
could be wished. In 1908 a missionary writes : 
"In some places, the spirit of independence 
has taken hold of the people, and they are 
anxious to do all they can for themselves. This 
is especially true in Shanghai and Hankow. 
One congregation in Shanghai is entirely self- 
supporting, and another nearly so. In Hankow 
the Cathedral congregation suddenly seized 
the idea that the Church was their own, and 
the contributions jumped in one year from less 
than a fourth to more than a half of their ex- 
penses. " 

"Most of our congregations contribute much specua 1 
more freely for special objects. The repairing 
of churches and the building of new ones, the 
purchase of land for cemeteries or other pur- 
poses are readily and generously contributed 
to. Special contributions are taken for special 
objects from time to time. A list of such ob- 
jects with suggested dates on which collections 
should be taken was prepared by the Bishop 
and sent to all clergy. These objects include 
the Apportionment, Church extension in the 
Missionary Districts, Missions in Japan, the 
Bible and Tract Societies to which we are in- 



170 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



Recent Method 
to Promote 
Giving 



Self- 
government 
in the 

Chinese Church 



At Shanghai 
and Hankow 



debted for most of our Christian literature, and 
some other objects/ ' 

An important step was taken at the Synod 
of Hankow in 1908. Among the provisional 
canons adopted was one which limited the right 
of lay delegates to vote at future synods to 
those parishes which had paid a certain small 
proportion of their parochial expenses. It 
should be mentioned that in most places the 
financial ability of the congregations is not 
great. In Hankow and Shanghai and a few 
other places there are a number of young men, 
graduates of our schools, who are in receipt of 
very good salaries. Many of them give 
liberally, but aside from them few of the con- 
verts have much to give. The poor give quite 
as liberally in proportion to their ability as the 
rich. 

From the beginning of our work the training 
of the clergy has had a most important place 
and our clergy have always had their share in 
the government of the Church. No court for 
the trial of any offense has ever been consti- 
tuted where the Chinese were not represented. 
Fortunately few such courts have been needed. 
The organization of the Church has always 
proceeded on the assumption that the Chinese 
would ultimately have full control. 

Shanghai has had a convocation without 
legislative power for some years past. There 



The Native Church 



171 



have been meetings in Hankow for various 
classes of workers, but there has been nothing 
of the nature of a synod until February, 1908. 
A meeting was held then in February, con- 
sisting of all the clergy, Chinese and foreign, 
together with lay representatives from the va- 
rious parishes and representatives from among 
the catechists and school-teachers. A constitu- 
tion and canons were provisionally adopted. 
The conventions will be triennial, as the in- 
conveniences of travel are great. 

In national organization the Church workers 
in China are making progress. For a number 
of years the Bishops held meetings at which 
they were attended by chaplains. Then in 1908 
a meeting was held to which the foreign clergy 
of the various districts, English and American, 
elected delegates — two besides the Bishop from 
each district. This meeting has done much 
toward the organization of the national 
Church. A meeting is to be held next year at 
which Chinese and foreign representatives are 
to be present. Doubtless that meeting will be 
able to do something definite in the way of 
organization. There are two great difficulties 
in the way. One is language. The people of 
South China, where there are very strong Eng- 
lish missions, speak languages which are not 
understood by each and still less by men from 
the northern and central provinces. For this 



172 Why and How of Foreign Missions 

first meeting the discussions are to be in Eng- 
lish with interpreters where needed. Though 
there would be more people at the conference 
understanding and speaking Mandarin, English 
is the only language in which we can be sure 
of interpreters. The other difficulty is the 
great variety in Church development, from the 
highly organized and largely self-supporting 
missions of the south to the missions of the 
north and west where there are very few clergy 
and no self-supporting congregations. Our 
own mission is, both geographically and as re- 
gards development, in a middle position. 
fn el thl xtension From the beginning a large part of the con- 
chinese church ve rts have been brought in as a result of the 
work of the Chinese. Most of our converts are 
first brought to the Church by friends who have 
already become Christians. The teaching of 
inquirers and catechumens is entirely in the 
hands of the Chinese clergy and catechists. 
Very few foreigners get time to do much 
preaching to the heathen. They are almost ex- 
clusively occupied in organization and in teach- 
ing and preaching to the regular congregations 
of Christians. One missionary w 7 rites : "I hard- 
ly baptized a convert whom I knew before he 
w^as an admitted catechumen except schoolboys 
and some of my servants. They are as a rule 
brought in by other converts, instructed by the 
catechists and Chinese clergy, and only ex- 



The Native Church 173 



amined and baptized by the foreigner, and even 
this is frequently done by the Chinese clergy." 

So in every important aspect of the work the 
preparation of an independent Church develops, 
and the Sung Kung Wei, as the Church in 
China is called, will, in God's good time, grow 
from the position of a foreign mission to that 
of another national branch of the Church. 

The Church in Japan 

In the first stage of the mission work, the Gro S wfh age ° f 
clergy of course were all foreigners, and they 
had to do all the clerical and evangelistic work 
which was done. During this brief period, 
the missionary was in the same relation toward 
several Japanese congregations that a clergy- 
man would be in this country. Not only was 
the preaching and the conduct of service under 
his direction, but the whole pastoral work was 
in his hands. 

In the second stage of the work the mis- sec ond stage 
sionaries had the oversight and direction of 
native workers. The work of the missionary 
under these conditions, if he had, as he usually 
did, a number of stations or congregations 
under his charge, was more nearly like that of 
a bishop than that of a clergyman in charge of 
a church in this country. He visited his con- 
gregations from time to time, administered the 
sacraments, and when he was present did such 



174 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



other work as seemed desirable to do; but the 
Japanese helper was usually resident, and upon 
him naturally and necessarily fell the chief bur- 
den of the work. If he were incompetent, the 
missionary could do little. If he were com- 
petent, much might be done. But it was very 
seldom that a Japanese worker could be of any 
special value unless he was fitted to work in a 
great part independently. It can be seen that 
such a condition as this could be only tem- 
porary. The early missionaries had need of 
assistance, and missionaries were tempted to 
hurry Japanese into the work to assist them 
without the education and other preparation 
which men ought to have to do such work. 
The Further What remains to be done is that work 

Stage 

should progress further on the lines on which 
it has developed already; that the Japanese 
Church should have as soon as possible native 
pastors who even while deacons are not under 
the jurisdiction of any priest, nor eventually of 
any foreign bishop ; and that unordained Japa- 
nese evangelists should also be under the direc- 
tion of the Japanese clergy. This is true to 
some extent already and it is only lack of 
numbers that prevents all such work passing 
into Japanese hands. 
le^Kokwa 1 } The present situation as to the native Church 
in Japan is that the Apostolic Church is already 
there under the name of theNipponSeiKokwai. 



The Native ChurcH 



175 



So far as its organization is concerned it is in- 
dependent now. It has no closer ecclesiastical 
connection with the Church of England or with 
our American Church than these have with 
one another. It is simply in communion with 
both. Its constitution is more or less modeled 
upon that of the American Church, but the 
American Church had nothing to do with its 
formation and has no power to change or 
modify it in any way. It was established by 
a synod which consisted of all the clergy, na- 
tive and foreign, and representatives of the 
laity, among whom there were in the first 
synod, several foreigners. There have never 
been any foreign lay delegates in any subse- 
quent synod. 

The relation of the foreign missionary to the Portion of 
Japanese Church is unique. As missionaries, Missionaries 
or as Bishops or clergy of the American 
Church, they have no standing whatever; but 
the Japanese Church has recognized the Eng- 
lish and American Bishops and clergy as being, 
in consequence of their relation to the home 
Church, and to the mission work before the 
time of the establishment of the Nippon Sei 
Kokwai as Bishops and clergy for the time be- 
ing of the Japanese Church. 

Every Bishop and every foreign clergyman character 
before he can take his place as delegate or con- 
stituent member of a synod of the Japanese 



176 Why and How of Foreign Missions 

Church, must first sign a statement promising 
conformity to the doctrine, discipline, and 
worship of that Church. Our missionaries in 
Japan to-day have therefore a dual relation. 
The Bishop is the Bishop of the American 
Church, working, so far as his relation to that 
Church is concerned, under the Constitution 
and Canons of the American Church. He is 
also Bishop for the time being of the Japanese 
Church, and in his relation to that he is under 
the Constitution and Canons of that Church. 
In the same way, the missionary is, so far as 
his relation to the home Church is concerned, 
governed only by the law of the home Church, 
and so far as his relation to the Japanese 
Church is concerned, only by the law of the 
Japanese Church. Out of this there arises a 
double set of institutions in the mission field. 

So far as the American Church is concerned, 
each district has its Bishop, its council of ad- 
vice, composed of Japanese and foreigners, and 
its convocation. The Bishop, because of his 
Sdual relation, has all the authority of a Bishop 
in both the Japanese and American Churches. 
He is also the sole representative of the Mis- 
sionary Society in its financial relations, and 
he, in conjunction with the Board of Missions, 
controls all expenditures within the limits of the 
appropriation. He has also the power of ap- 
pointment and removal of foreign missionaries 



The Native Church 



177 



Self- 
government 



within the field. Where native workers receive 
their salaries through the Board of Missions, 
he has the same power of appointment and re- 
moval; and, in addition, as being sole repre- 
sentative of the body which employs them, has 
power within the limits of the funds at his 
discretion to increase, diminish, or discontinue 
their salaries. 

Returning to the Nippon Sei Kokwai, it has 
at present (1908), first of all, its six Mission- Nippon sei 
ary Districts under two American and four Kokwai 
English Bishops, which coincide, so far as the 
American Districts of Tokyo and Kyoto are 
concerned, with the Japanese Districts of North 
Tokyo and Kyoto, because the American 
Church accepts these Japanese Districts as its 
own sphere of operations. None of these six 
districts are dioceses in the strict sense, and 
yet they come nearer the status of dioceses than 
our American Missionary Districts either at 
home or abroad. Each has its own District 
Council, which meets annually as a matter of 
constitutional right. It has legislative power in 
the same manner and to about the same degree 
as an American diocese, and on the whole falls 
short of the status of the latter only in its ina- 
bility to elect its own Bishop. 

In each district there is a standing com- JJ^-J t n e d e ing 
mittee. It has powers exercised by standing 
committees in this country, with some addi- 



178 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



tions, the tendency of the Japanese Church 
being a little more to centralization than pre- 
vails here. 

Iynod° cal The local Synod corresponding to our Dio- 
cesan Conventions, consists of the Bishop, who 
presides, all of the Japanese clergy and as 
many of the foreign clergy as have the Bishop's 
license, and have signed the promise of confor- 
mity to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of 
the Japanese Church, together with evangelists 
in pastoral charge of congregations, and lay 
delegates from each congregation having more 
than a certain number of communicants. Usu- 
ally, smaller congregations can unite to send 
a joint delegate. In the Synod thus constituted, 
the Bishop at the present time is a foreigner, 
the clergy part foreign and part Japanese, with 
the Japanese in most districts in the majority, 
while the lay delegates are entirely Japanese. 
Iynod eneral The General Synod of the Japanese Church 
corresponds to our General Convention, and 
like it meets every three years. It is com- 
posed of the present foreign Bishops, of 
clerical delegates who are elected by the clergy 
at the district Synod, and of lay delegates who 
are elected by the laity. Of the clerical dele- 
gates a pretty large majority are now Japanese. 
The lay delegates are all Japanese. 
inSpondenM This mingling together of foreigners who 
are supported and controlled by foreign 



The Native Church 179 



churches with natives is one of the things 
that limits the actual and complete independ- 
ence of the Japanese Church. It is only in the 
lay vote of the synods that purely Japanese 
opinions and convictions are represented. On 
the whole, however, the Japanese clergy being 
in the majority in most districts, the clerical 
vote comes reasonably near representing Japa- 
nese opinion. With the episcopal vote, it is of 
course different. The Bishops are all for- 
eigners. They are men who are as well ac- 
quainted with Japanese conditions and the 
Japanese Church as is possible. They are not 
Japanese and cannot be expected to represent 
the Japanese Church, although for the time 
being, they govern it as Bishops and help to 
govern it as members of the synods. It is here 
then, in the episcopate, that the Japanese 
Church is furthest removed from independence. 
The last synod, however, passed in 1908 a 
canon which looks to a change here. This 
canon provides that whenever in any given 
locality there are six self-supporting congrega- 
tions, they may take action toward the forma- 
tion of a diocese. This action is reported to 
the Standing Committee of the whole Church, 
whose duty it is to investigate the matter and 
report to the next General Synod. If the Gen- 
eral Synod authorizes the erection of the dio- 
cese, it will then have the right to elect its 



180 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



Bishop. His consecration would be asked from 
Bishops of the American or English Churches. 
Res?s re ^S tus Ho ^ soon the Church in Japan will be in- 
Japanese dependent, it is impossible to say. The initia- 
tive in these matters rests where it ought to 
rest, with the Japanese Church. The power 
rests also with them. Although that Church 
includes, as a part of its working force, foreign 
Bishops and other clergy having full status in 
that Church, yet as an organization it is en- 
tirely independent, and was so recognized by 
our own General Convention in 1886. 
Transition The future of the mission work in Japan 
must certainly be, that under whatever form of 
Church government, the missionaries must be 
helpers, not rulers. It will be seen, then, that 
the one remaining step of progress toward the 
independence of the Japanese Church is largely 
a matter of persons rather than of institutions. 
The organization is there. What remains is to 
substitute Japanese for foreigners in the epis- 
copate, to put foreigners under the control of 
the Japanese Bishops, and eventually to let all 
the ordinary clerical work pass into Japanese 
hands. 

fn el the U §fippon The independence of the Japanese Church is 
delayed also by its scanty financial resources. 
Progress toward self-support has been slower 
than in other departments, and rightly so. 
There have always been doctrinaires who main- 



Sei Kokwai 



The Native Church 181 



tain that a native Church ought to be self- 
supporting from the beginning. The particular 
way in which self-support can be helped, how- 
ever, varies according to local circumstances. 
Very often foreign help, wisely applied, is the 
most efficient method of bringing about self- 
support. Take, for example, Christ Church, 
Osaka (now self-supporting), built as a chapel 
to Saint Timothy's School, more than twenty- 
five years ago. It holds twenty-five benches, 
each six feet long. In Christ Church, want 
of space makes it necessary to have a rule that 
children shall not be allowed to accompany 
their parents to the services. It is hard for a 
Japanese mission station to attain self-support 
in a building too small properly to hold a con- 
gregation that was large enough to support it- 
self. Can any reasonable person maintain that 
it would pauperize the Japanese Church or 
hinder its self-support, if they had temporary 
and sufficient help in providing adequate church 
buildings ? 

The great difficulty in the way of Japanese 
self-support is not so much want of will as 
want of means. For the most part, the people 
of means are not in the Christian Church. So 
far as intelligence and education are con- 
cerned, the membership of our Churches, and 
of Protestant Churches, is far above the aver- 
age of the country. No better single proof of 



1 82 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



that can be found than this, that in the first 
Japanese Parliament, thirteen out of the 300 
elected members were Christians, though there 
was only one Christian to every 400 of the 
population. And so among officials, profes- 
sional men, students, and the like, the propor- 
tion of Christians has been for a long time 
much greater than among the population at 
large. But the Christians for the most part are 
young people, with young families, and small 
incomes. That such congregations as these 
should be expected to build churches such as 
are needed for their work in a city like Osaka, 
with more than a million people, or like Tokyo, 
with nearly two millions, is not reasonable. In 
both places, land is expensive, and churches 
must be substantially built to guard against 
fire. No one, however, disputes the fact that 
every native Church ought to be self-support- 
ing as soon, and to as large a degree, as pos- 
sible. 

can°for ional If the Japanese Church cannot yet be inde- 
pendent in the work of its churches, still less 
can it be expected to be so in Christian educa- 
tion. In such institutions as Saint Paul's Col- 
lege, Tokyo, is now the great opportunity for 
Churchmen in the United States to help for- 
ward the cause of self-support by training up 
men to lead the Japanese Church. How many 
colleges in America are self-supporting, and 



Assistance 



The Native Church 183 



how important are they to Church and State? 
It is not the withholding of money at this stage 
of development that will accomplish the pur- 
pose, but rather the judicious use of money at 
the right time and in the right place. 

The Church in Japan is doing much in this 
direction through the personal service of its 
members to win their fellow countrymen to 
Christianity. The blind believer of one of our 
missions, who for a long time refused to be 
baptized, because he did not dare to become a 
Christian on account of his blindness, thinking 
he could not be a missionary, is a dramatic in- 
stance of the sense of responsibility which per- 
meates members of the Japanese Church. Nor 
are there lacking brilliant instances to show the 
sense of personal responsibility as a Christian 
to spread Christianity. The Holy Trinity Or- 
phanage and School for Feeble-minded Chil- 
dren was begun and carried on by Mr. Ishii 
for so many years simply because he knew the 
need, and was ready to give all he owned to 
supply it. Similarly, the Widely Loving So- 
ciety, an Orphanage started and carried on by 
the Kobashi family, was also founded as an 
individual philanthropy, and shows the flower- 
ing of Christianity in a Japanese household. 
Again, the Church School of Miss Ume Tsuda, 
is not a diocesan institution, but is the success- 
ful missionary venture of a gentlewoman of 



184 Why and How of Foreign Missions 

Japan, who sees the need of young girls about 
her for all that Christianity can give, and is 
supplying it. Instances like these, where in- 
dividuals having spent their money, keep giv- 
ing their lives, indicate the vitality in the Japa- 
nese Church of the Christian instinct to Chris- 
tianize others. No wonder that the Nippon Sei 
Kokwai, by sending and supporting one of its 
own clergy as a missionary to the Japanese in 
Formosa, has also given an example of a sense 
of corporate responsibility and gratitude for 
God's truth. 

QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER VI 

Aim : To Understand the Problems Involved in the 
Great Aim of Foreign Missions 

1. If the heathen and Moslem world be esti- 
mated at 1,000,000,000, what number of them 
are still unreached? 

2. If we have less than 8,000,000 communicants 
and adherents in Anglican and Protestant mis- 
sions at present, how long would it take at the 
same rate to Christianize the world? 

3. What should be the missionary policy in order 
to accelerate this rate of progress? 

4. Sum up all the advantages that the foreign 
missionary has over the native as a missionary. 

5. Sum up all the advantages which the native 
has over the foreigner as a missionary. 

6. In view of these relative advantages, how 
should the work be divided between the mis- 
sionary and the native? 



The Native Church 185 



7. What is the relative importance to the mission- 
ary of these three forms of work: (1) Preach- 
ing to the unevangelized ; (2) teaching the 
inquirers; (3) training native workers. 

8. In view of your answer to the last question, 
what sort of training ought the missionary 
candidate to receive? 

9. To what extent ought the missionary policy 
to be followed by the clergy at home? 

10. What special methods would you employ to 
render the native Church self-propagating? 

11. In what ways can the educational work co- 
operate in rendering the native Church self- 
propagating ? 

12. In what ways can the literary work cooperate? 

13. If you were a missionary, would you feel justi- 
fied in suggesting the duty of giving to a 
convert who had not one tenth of the com- 
forts of life which you enjoyed? 

14. At what point should the subject of giving 
be presented to the native convert? 

15. What things that the native Church would 
otherwise be deprived of should be supplied 
from the mission funds? 

16. What things would it be better for the native 
Church to forego until it can pay for them 
itself? 

17. Give the arguments for and against a free 
use of mission funds in the support of the 
native Church. 

18. What measures would you take to increase 
self-support in a native congregation that had 
been backward in this respect? 



186 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



19. In what ways do self-support, self-propagation, 
and self-government stimulate each other in the 
Nippon Sei Kokwai, and the Sung Kung Wei? 

20. How does the emphasis on various methods of 
missionary work in Liberia differ from that in 
Brazil, and why? 

21. In what ways is the missionary better fitted 
than the native to govern the native Church? 

22. What are the principal dangers in allowing the 
native Church too much self-government? 

23. What are the principal dangers of allowing the 
native Church too little self-government? 

24. What measures would you take as a mission- 
ary to avoid both of these classes of dangers? 

25. What can you do as a Churchman in regard 
to the organization of national Churches? 



THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
AND ITS CRITICS 



Many men who at home moved in good society and 
were active members in a Christian church, are now 
living in some Eastern city in a manner that dis- 
graces the name of our English civilization. Some 
native critics, seeing this, say: "Christianity will not 
endure exportation to the East." It cannot be expected 
that among such as these, who know no Sabbath, and 
who have abandoned, for the present at least, restraint 
against intemperance and impurity, there will be found 
any who do not hate the very name missionary be- 
cause of the condemning conscience that the suggestion 
arouses in themselves. — James L. Barton 

The longer one stays in India the more evidence one 
has that the future well-being of this country, and above 
all, the extension, permanence, and quality of British 
influence, depend largely upon the progress of missions. 

i — James Bryce 

The enemies of foreign missions have spoken taunt- 
ingly of the slowness of the work and of its great 
and disproportionate cost, and we have too exclusively 
consoled ourselves and answered the criticism by the 
suggestion that with God a thousand years are as one 
day. We should not lose sight of the other side of that 
truth — one day with him is as a thousand years. God 
has not set a uniform pace for himself in the work of 
bringing in the kingdom of his Son. He will hasten 
it in his day. The stride of his Church shall be so 
quickened that commerce will be the laggard. Love 
shall outrun greed. — Benjamin Harrison 



188 



VII 



THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE AND 
ITS CRITICS 



T 



HE purity of the missionary's motive, cdticism 



the unselfishness of his work, do not legitimate 
exempt him from criticism, nor should they. 
Any enterprise which depends upon public sup- 
port is a fair object of criticism. Boards and 
missionaries are human and have their share of 
human infirmities. They have a right to* in- 
sist that criticism shall be honest; but within 
that limit, any one has a right to scrutinize 
their methods and work and to express his 
conclusions with entire frankness. 

Critics should remember, however, that the MTk^Mutakes 
foreign missionary enterprise deals with agents Inevitable 
who are not mechanical instruments or sol- 
diers amenable to military discipline, but liv- 
ing, intelligent men and women who, like 
critics, are fallible; who are scattered all over 
the world ; whose acts often appear strange be- 
cause determined by conditions which people 
at home do not understand ; and that some mis- 
takes are inevitable when men of one race 
attempt to live among and influence those 
of a different race. We shall know everything 
189 



190 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



Pour Classes 
of Criticisms 



From Friends 



From Those 
Who Are 
Ignorant 



and do things just right when we get to heaven ; 
but on earth we must feel our way along and 
learn by experience. Home enterprises, busi- 
ness, educational, philanthropic, and religious, 
are exposed to a constant fire of criticism, some 
of it just. It is notorious that men conducting 
them often blunder, and that the result is fre- 
quently waste, duplication, and even failure. 
Why then should we demand perfection of 
foreign missionaries, especially when their 
work is conducted under difficulties far more 
numerous and formidable? We do not object 
to the fact of criticism; we simply urge that 
it be reasonable and made with due regard 
to conditions. 

Criticism of missionaries and their work may 
be roughly divided into four classes : 

First, those which come from friends of 
the work who see defects, or think that they 
do. Some of these criticisms are undoubtedly 
just, and should be heeded. Others are based 
on misapprehensions, and should elicit tem- 
perate explanations. The attitude of the boards 
and the missionaries toward this whole class of 
critics should be that of the inspired writer 
who said: "Faithful are the wounds of a 
friend." . 

Second, criticisms which come from those 
who are ignorant of the real character, aims, 
and work of the missionary and the methods 



Missionary Enterprise and Its Critics 191 



of mission boards. This is a large class. There 
are many people who have never seen mission- 
ary work, or met a missionary, or read a mis- 
sionary book, but who, seeing in the news- 
papers or hearing from some friend the class 
of criticisms to which reference has just been 
made, jump to the conclusion that they are 
true. 

The increasing interest in Asia and the com- Globetrotters* 
parative ease with which it can now be visited 
are rapidly enlarging the stream of foreign 
travelers. Unfortunately, many of them are 
mere globe-trotters, knowing little and caring 
less about missionaries, people who at home are 
only languidly interested in Church work and 
who do not know what religious effort is being 
put forth in their own city. Abroad, they 
usually confine their visits to the port cities 
and capitals, and become acquainted only at 
the foreign hotels and clubs. They seldom 
look up foreign missions and missionary work, 
but get their impressions from more or less 
irreligious and dissolute traders and profes- 
sional guides. What they do see of missions 
sometimes misleads them. Typical mission 
work can seldom be seen in a port city. 
The natives often exhibit the worst traits of 
their own race, or are spoiled by the evil ex- 
ample of the dissolute foreign community. The 
mission buildings are apt to be memorials or 



192 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



other special gifts, and give a misleading im- 
pression as to the scale of missionary expendi- 
ture. Hearing the sneers at the clubs and ho- 
tels, and without going near the missionary 
himself, the globe-trotter carries away slanders, 
which, on his return, are sensationally paraded 
in the newspapers and eagerly swallowed by a 
gullible public. The Hon. Edwin H. Conger, 
former American Minister to China, wrote: 
"The attacks upon missionaries by sensational 
press correspondents and globe-girdling trav- 
elers have invariably been made without knowl- 
edge or investigation, and nine tenths of them 
are the veriest libel and the grossest slander." 
cross- It is often interesting to propound some 

questioning m . 

a critic questions to such a critic. An American mer- 
chant returned from China to say that mis- 
sions were a failure. Whereupon his pastor 
proceeded to interrogate him. "What city 
of China did you visit?" "Canton," was the 
reply. "What did you find in our mission 
schools which impressed you as so faulty?" 
The merchant confessed that he had not seen 
any schools. "And yet," said the pastor, "our 
board alone has in Canton a normal school, 
a theological seminary, a large boarding- 
school for girls, and several day-schools, while 
other denominations also have schools. Well, 
what was there about the mission churches 
which so displeased you?" Again the mer- 



Missionary Enterprise and Its Critics 193 

chant was forced to confess his ignorance; he 
did not know that there was a church in Can- 
ton till his pastor told him that there were, in 
and near the city, scores of churches and 
chapels, some of them very large, and with 
preaching not only every Sunday but, in some 
instances, every day. 

"But surely you were interested in the hos- 
pitals," queried the worker. "One of the largest 
hospitals in Asia stands in a conspicuous posi- 
tion on the river front, while the woman's 
hospital in another part of the city is also a 
great plant, with a medical college and a 
nurses' training school connected with it." 
Incredible as it may seem, he knew absolutely 
nothing about these beneficent institutions. 
Further inquiries elicited the admission that 
the critic knew nothing of the orphanage, or 
the school for the blind, or the refuge for 
the insane, and that he had made no effort 
whatever to become acquainted with the mis- 
sionaries. He was a little embarrassed by 
this time, but his questioner could not refrain 
from telling him the old story about the Eng- 
lish army officer and the foreign missionary 
who met on an ocean steamer. The army of- 
ficer had contemptuously said that he had lived 
in India thirty years and had never seen a na- 
tive Christian. Shortly afterward, he recited 
with gusto his success in tiger-hunting, de- 



194 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



" Not With 
Outward Show" 



From Those 

Without 

Sympathy 

for the 

Missionary 

Motive 



claring that he had killed no less than nine 
tigers. "Pardon me," gently said the mis- 
sionary, "did I understand you to say that 
you have killed nine tigers in India?" "Yes, 
sir," replied the colonel. "Now that is remark- 
able," continued the missionary, "for I have 
lived in India for thirty years and have never 
seen a tiger." "Perhaps, sir," sneered the col- 
onel, "you were not looking for tigers." "Pre- 
cisely," was the answer of the missionary, 
"and may not that have been the reason why 
you never saw any nartive converts?" 

When Mr. Stead got the impression that "If 
Christ came to Chicago," with its thousands of 
churches and Christian institutions of every 
kind, he would find little but vice and crime, 
it is not surprising that the casual traveler sees 
few external signs of Christianity in a populous 
pagan city. It w T as Christ himself w r ho said: 
"The kingdom of God cometh not with obser- 
vation," or as the margin reads, "not with out- 
ward show." 

Third, criticisms which are based on want 
of sympathy with the fundamental motives 
and aims of the missionary enterprise. It is 
sometimes w T holesome for those who live in a 
missionary environment to ascertain how their 
methods appear to people who are outside of 
that environment. Attention may thus be called 
to defects which w T ould otherwise escape no- 



Missionary Enterprise and Its Critics 195 



tice. Men, however, who are opposed, not 
merely to certain methods, but to the essen- 
tial character of the movement itself can hardly 
be considered fair critics. They will never 
be silenced, because they are inaccessible to the 
Christian argument. Their criticisms have been 
demolished over and over again, but they re- 
appear unabashed within a month. Even 
when their objections are overcome, their op- 
position remains. Critics of this class will 
always ridicule the effort to propagate a re- 
ligion which they do not practise. They do 
not confine their criticisms to the missionary, 
but sneer at churches at home, declaring that 
ministers are hirelings and communicants hypo- 
crites. It does not necessarily follow that 
the criticisms of such men are unfounded; but 
"it is within the right of the missionary to 
protest against being arraigned by judges 
habitually hostile to him, and it is within the 
right of the public to scrutinize the pronounce- 
ments of such judgments with much suspicion. " 

Some of the critics of this class live in JoFlfeign as 
Europe and America, but many of them reside bywidliy 
in the treaty ports of non-christian lands. We 
do not mean that the foreign colonies in the 
concessions are wholly composed of such men. 
They include, on the contrary, some ex- 
cellent people to whose sympathy and help- 
fulness the missionaries are greatly indebted. 



Traveled 
Laymen 



196 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



From Those 
Whose 
Interests 
Conflict 



We are not quoting missionaries, however, but 
widely traveled laymen in the statement that 
the life of the typical foreigner in Asia is such 
that a missionary cannot consistently join in 
it, no matter how cordial his desire to be on 
friendly terms with his countrymen. Col- 
quhoun declares that foreigners in China go 
to get money and then return, do not learn 
the language, have little intercourse with na- 
tives and know little about them. Mr. Fred- 
erick McCormick, for six years Associated 
Press correspondent in China, says that "the 
foreign communities are not in China, but at 
China," simply "ranged on the shore" ; that 
"they carry on their relations with China 
through a go-between native" ; that their "so- 
ciety is centered about a club, of which the 
most conspicuous elements are the bar, race- 
track, and book-maker" ; and that "the life, 
for the most part, of the communities is in 
direct antagonism to that of missionaries" 
who live and work among the Chinese. 

Fourth, criticisms which spring from con- 
flicting interests. Such are the objections 
which originate with traders who sell rum in 
Africa and opium in China, who traffic in the 
virtue of native girls, or entice away coolies 
under specious "contracts" which result in 
virtual slavery. Some regions have long been 
infested by men of this infamous type, and 



Missionary Enterprise and Its Critics 197 



while some of their nefarious practises have 
been broken up, others still continue. Almost 
every port city in non-christian lands has dens 
of vice which are kept by white men or women 
and which pander to the lowest passions. Men 
of this kind are, of course, virulent haters of 
missionaries. Charles Darwin asserted that 
"the foreign travelers and residents in the 
South Sea Islands, who write with such hos- 
tility to missions there, are men who find the 
missionary an obstacle to the accomplishment 
of their evil purposes." There are, too, native 
priests who, like the silversmiths of Ephesus, 
find their craft in danger, and circulate false- 
hoods regarding missionaries as political plot- 
ters or adepts in witchcraft. It is not uncom- 
mon in Chinese cities for placards to be con- 
spicuously posted, charging missionaries with 
boiling and eating Chinese babies. 

Let us now take up some current criticisms. 
Several of the most common have already 
been considered in connection with other chap- 
ters, and need not be repeated here. 

"Missionaries are inferior men." The man 
who makes this objection simply shows that 
he does not know missionaries or that he is 
generalizing from some exceptional individual. 
There are undoubtedly missionaries who say 
and do foolish things, just as some of us 
at home do, and once in a while one proves 



Some 

Current 

Criticisms 



" Missionaries 
Inferior" 



198 Why and How of Foreign Missions 

to be incompetent. Ninety-four per cent, of the 
business men of the United States are said 
to fail at some time in their lives. Why, then, 
should a few missionary failures be deemed 
an adequate ground for condemning the whole 
class? The reader who hears criticisms which 
impress him as serious should demand names 
and particulars and forward them to the board 
with which the missionary is connected. The 
boards have neither desire nor motive to shield 
misconduct. They will promptly investigate 
and take such action as the facts may justify. 

Travelers and officials like Charles Darwin, 
Lord Lawrence, Sir Harry H. Johnston, Sir 
Robert Hart, Sir Mortimer Durand, the Hon. 
John W. Foster, the Hon. William Jennings 
Bryan, Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop, the Hon. 
Charles Denby, and scores of others, have 
borne high testimony to the worth of mission- 
aries. Those who do not confine their observa- 
tions to treaty-port hotels or draw upon their 
imagination for facts, but who have eyes to 
see and ears to hear the mighty forces which 
are gradually inaugurating a new era in Asia, 
report that the real missionary is an educated, 
devoted man, the highest type of Christian 
character, and that in the spirit of the Master, 
he heals the sick, teaches the young, translates 
the Bible, creates a wholesome literature, and 
inculcates those great truths of the Christian 



Missionary Enterprise and Its Critics 199 



religion to which Europe and America owe 
whatever of true greatness they possess. No 
one is perfect, but the man who can write 
only evil of such men and women does so at 
the expense either of his intelligence or his 
candor. 

''Converts are not genuine, but are attracted q%™?**? 
to the missionary by the hope of employment 
or support." The number of native communi- 
cants in connection with foreign missionary 
churches is 1,816,450, besides 1,272,383 en- 
rolled catechumens; but the total number of 
native agents is only 95,876, many of whom 
are paid either wholly or in part by the native 
Christians themselves. Making all due allow- 
ance for others who are employed as servants 
or who receive assistance in schools, the num- 
ber who are aided in any way by the foreigner 
is relatively insignificant. The great body of 
native Christians have no financial motive 
whatever for confessing Christ. The Hon. 
Charles Denby, for thirteen years American 
Minister at Peking, has reminded the world 
that during the Boxer uprising, "the province 
of Chih-li furnished 6,200 Chinese who re- 
mained true to their faith in spite of danger, 
suffering, and impending death. It is said 
that 15,000 converts were killed during the 
riots, and not as many as two per cent, of them 
apostatized. In the face of these facts, the 



200 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



old allegation that the Chinese converts are 
treacherous, venal, and untrue, must be re- 
nounced. Let us not call them 'rice Christians' 
any more." 

station "Missionaries needlessly irritate the Chinese 
Aroused j)y interfering with native lawsuits. " A dif- 
ference should be observed here between 
the practise of the European Roman 
Catholic missionaries and the American 
Protestant missionaries. The former champion 
the cause of their converts, particularly when 
they believe that lawsuits are instigated by the 
opponents of Christianity. It is the policy 
of the Protestant boards and missions to dis- 
courage such interference, and the missionaries 
themselves are more and more clearly seeing 
the imprudence of it. Comparatively seldom 
now does a Protestant missionary give offense 
in this matter. 

^Missionaries "Missionaries are universally hated by the 
Natives" natives, while the ordinary foreigner is toler- 
ated." This is grossly untrue. The mission- 
aries are far more popular with the people than 
any other foreigners. They travel freely, un- 
armed and unprotected, and it is comparatively 
seldom that they are molested. When they 
are attacked, it is by a class of ruffians who, 
in the slums of an American city, attack a Chi- 
nese gentleman on the streets. Imperial edicts 
have specifically declared that "the Chinese 



Missionary Enterprise and Its Critics 201 

Government .... is not opposed to the 
work of the missions." It would be easy to 
fill pages with extracts from edicts commend- 
ing the missionaries and their work. In 1895, 
the Prefect of Nanking issued a proclamation 
which included the following passage : 

"Now having examined the doctrine halls 
in every place pertaining to the prefecture, 
we find that there have been established free 
schools where the poor children of China may 
receive instruction; hospitals where Chinamen 
may freely receive healing; that the mission- 
aries are all really good ; not only do they not 
take the people's possessions, but they do not 
seem to desire men's praise. Although China- 
men are pleased to do good, there are none 
who equal the missionaries." 

During their visits in America, both Viceroy 
Li Hung-chang and Viceroy Tuan Fong freely 
expressed their gratitude for the services of 
the missionaries, the latter declaring that "the 
awakening of China may be traced in no small 
measure to the hands of the missionaries ; they 
have borne the light of Western civilization to 
every nook and corner of the Empire." In 
1900, the people of Paoting fu murdered the 
missionaries ; but they soon realized their mis- 
take, gave land for a better station site, and 
presented to the new mission hospital a silk 
banner on which was worked in letters of gold : 



202 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



"This place bestows grace on the Chinese peo- 
ple." In the same city, a high official visited 
the mission church and, seeing the ten com- 
mandments upon the wall, said to the mission- 
aries : "If you can get that teaching into 
the minds of my soldiers they will be good 
soldiers. I see now one notable characteristic 
of Christianity : it seems to have the power to 
go out from oneself to others; it is not self- 
centered, but works for others." 
Denby^s harles ^he Hon. Charles Denby, late American 
statement Minister to China, probably was as competent 
to pronounce upon this question as any one, 
and he wrote : "On an analysis of the bitter an- 
tichristian movement, we find that it is largely 
to be explained as primarily antiforeign; that 
is, largely directed against missionaries solely 
as foreigners, not solely as teachers of a foreign 
religion. The missionaries, in the vast majority 
of cases, are loved by those Chinese with whom 
they succeed in establishing intimate relations, 
and they are almost universally respected by 
all classes in the communities in which they are 
well known." 

Ma?ks e of A large volume would be required to quote 
frSm^RlSers 11 ^ e appreciative words of Asiatic and African 
officials and P r i nces > nobles, magistrates, and people, wher- 
ever they have become acquainted with the 
real character and objects of the missionaries 
and have been able to separate them from the 



Missionary Enterprise and Its Critics 203 



white men who have political or commercial 
designs. Hardly a month passes without some 
substantial token of this appreciation in the 
form of gifts to mission institutions. The 
Empress Dowager of China, the Mikado of 
Japan, the Emperor of Korea, the King of 
Siam, East Indian, African, and South Sea 
princes without number, and even Moslems, 
have made such gifts ; while scores of officials, 
like the Chinese Governors of Shan-tung and 
Formosa and the Siamese Minister of the In- 
terior, have tried to secure missionaries for the 
presidency of government colleges or for other 
responsible posts. 

"Missionaries make trouble for their own " M * ss i ona £ es 

Make Trouble 

governments/' The Hon. William H. Taft, { &™Z°£ n „ 
while Secretary of War, in an address in New 
York City, April 20, 1908, referred to this 
criticism and emphatically denounced it as un- 
founded. Well-informed government officials 
do not complain about missionaries as a class, 
though they may sometimes object to 
the indiscretion of a particular individual. 
Suppose the missionary does occasionally need 
protection; he is a citizen, and what kind of 
a government is it which refuses to protect its 
citizens in their lawful undertakings ? No one 
questions the right of a trader, however dis- 
solute, to go wherever he pleases and to be 
defended by his country in case of danger. 



204 Why and How of Foreign Missions 

Has not a missionary an equal right to the 
benefits of his flag? The Hon. John Barrett, 
formerly American Minister to Siam, says that 
150 mission workers gave him less trouble in 
five years than fifteen merchants gave him in 
five months. 

"Missionaries injure and denationalize their 
, converts." Christianity never injured or de- 
nationalized any one. It simply made him 
a better man — more honest, more intelligent, 
more charitable, more loyal to his own country. 
Why should it injure an Asiatic or African 
to stop worshiping demons and to begin wor- 
shiping the true God ; to renounce drunkenness, 
immorality, and laziness, and become a sober, 
moral, and industrious citizen? The fact is 
that native Christians in Asia and Africa are 
the very best element in the population. The 
Chinese Government made a large grant for 
indemnity for the lives of the Chinese Chris- 
tians who were murdered during the Boxer 
uprising. How much it meant to the poor 
survivors will be understood from the fact that 
the share of the Christians in a single county 
was 10,000 taels. But none of the Christians 
in that county would accept the indemnity. 
They took compensation only for the property 
they had lost ; but they gave one tenth of that 
to support several Chinese evangelists to preach 
the gospel to their former persecutors, and 



Missionary Enterprise and Its Critics 205 

afterward they tried to raise a fund to pay 
back to the government the indemnity that 
they did receive. Such a course indicates both 
genuineness of faith and loyalty to the Em- 
peror. 

An illustration of this is found in the way 
St. John's College, Shanghai, has been develop- 
ing patriotism in its students. This appears not 
only in the St. John's College Echo, the college 
paper, and in the songs and festivities of the 
students, but also after they graduate in their 
willingness to sacrifice for the good of the com- 
munity and in their bright vision of the great- 
ness and the opportunities before their country. 

"There is much to be done in our own land, a t C Home '? egi 
and charity begins at home." One might urge 
with equal truth that education begins with the 
alphabet ; but it ends there only with the feeble- 
minded. A New York rector says that we 
ought to give less for foreign missions and 
more for the conversion of "the foreigners 
within the shade of our churches." If, how- 
ever, he had looked into the Report of the 
Charity Organization Society of New York, 
he would have found a list of 3,330 religious 
and philanthropic agencies in his own city. 
The first time I visited New York's slum dis- 
trict, I was amazed by the number of missions. 
A high authority declares that "there is no 
other city in the world, except London, where 



2o6 Why and How of Foreign Missions 

more is being done to point the lost to the Son 
of God than in New York." 

Many have seen the statement that St. 
Louis has one church for 2,800 of population, 
Chicago one for 2,081, Boston one for 1,600, 
and Minneapolis one for 1,054. In the United 
States there are about 197,000 Protestant 
churches, or one for every 380 of the non- 
Catholic population, one Protestant minister 
for 514, one Christian worker for seventy-five, 
and one communicant for four. Talk about 
the relative needs of the United States! In 
a town of 8,000 people, there are three Presby- 
terian, three United Presbyterian, three Metho- 
dist, two Episcopal churches, and one Christian 
church. "For every missionary Protestants 
send abroad they hold seventy-six at home." A 
million Americans are engaged in distinctively 
religious work, about 150,000 of whom devote 
themselves to it as a separate profession. In 
the light of these facts, the statement that "the 
Church cannot see the misery which is under 
her own nose at home" appears rather absurd. 

How is it abroad ? In South America there 
is only one ordained missionary for 154,000 
people; in Africa and India, for 186,000; in 
Siam, for 200,000; and in China, for 603,000! 
Dr. Arthur Mitchell wrote of a journey of 
only twenty-four hours from Hang-chou to 
Shanghai: "I was absolutely awestruck and 



Missionary Enterprise and Its Critics 207 



dumb as I steamed past city after city, great 
and populous, one of which was a walled city 
of 300,000 souls, without one missionary of 
any Christian denomination whatever, and 
without so much as a native Christian helper 
or teacher of any kind. That silent moon- 
light night, as I passed unnoticed by those 
long, dark battlements shutting in their pagan 
multitudes, was one of the most solemn of 
my life ; and the hours of daylight, when other 
cities, still larger than many of our American 
capitals, were continually coming into view, 
and the teeming populations of the canals and 
rivers and villages and fields and roads were 
before my eyes, kept adding to the burden of 
the night." 

As for money, the running expenses of all Expenditures 
the churches in the United States absorbed and H Abroad 
$158,000,000 in 1900. In New York City 
alone they were $8,995,000. These figures are 
exclusive of the cost of new structures, general 
charities, mission contributions, and other ob- 
jects. The cost of maintaining the Protestant 
Episcopal churches in the United States for 
that year was $14,606,000; Presbyterian, $20,- 
375,000; Baptist, $12,348,000; Methodist, 
$26,267,000; and Roman Catholic, $31,185,- 
000. 1 Almost fabulous sums are given to col- 
leges and libraries and philanthropic institu- 

1 Christendom Anno Domini, igoi, Vol. I, 533, 534. 



208 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



tions in America; two men, Mr. John. D. 
Rockefeller and Mr. Andrew Carnegie, hav- 
ing contributed over $200,000,000 within 
less than two decades, the former bestowing 
$32,000,000 on the General Education Board 
in a single gift. The yearly aggregate of large 
individual gifts to educational and charitable 
institutions is over $150,000,000. How much 
of this enormous sum goes to foreign missions 
has not been separately estimated ; but the total 
income of all the boards in the country 
is only $8,972,418, and as the bulk of that 
comes in small sums from congregations, it is 
evident that but little, if any, more than $1,- 
000,000 of these large individual gifts goes 
abroad. In general, our home churches spend 
ninety-four cents in America for every six 
cents that they give for the evangelization of 
the world. Of England and Ireland, it is said 
that the income of their churches approximates 
$150,000,000, and that of this immense sum 
only $8,000,000 is spent on missions to the 
heathen. 

Eariier anity s It is tru e that there are unconverted people 
Mo S veme a nt y s at home ; but what would be thought of a busi- 
ness man who declined to sell goods outside 
of his own city until all its inhabitants used 
them? The fact that some Americans are ir- 
religious does not lesson our obligation to give 
the gospel to the world. If the early Church 



Missionary Enterprise and Its Critics 209 



had refused to send the gospel to other nations 
until its own nation was converted, Chris- 
tianity would have died in its cradle, for the 
land in which it originated was never really 
Christianized and is to-day Mohammedan. The 
argument that our own land is not yet evangel- 
ized would have made the church at Antioch 
disobey the command of the Holy Spirit to 
send forth Paul and Barnabas. It would have 
kept Augustine of Canterbury from carry- 
ing the gospel to England. It would have 
prevented the founding of churches in America, 
and would, to-day, cripple all our home mis- 
sionary work, since there is no other part of 
the United States more godless than the East- 
ern States where the gospel has been known 
the longest. Christ did not tell his disciples 
to withhold his faith from other nations until 
they had converted Palestine; he told them to* 
go at once into all the world and preach the 
gospel to the whole creation ; and it is because 
they obeyed that command that we have the 
gospel to-day. 

The argument that we ought to convert NoTconfined 23 
America first because it would then convert the toAmerica 
world, is one of those glittering generalities 
that do not bear analysis. America has had 
the gospel for two hundred years, and is not 
converted yet. England has had it more than 
a thousand years, and is as far from conver 



2io Why and How of Foreign Missions 



sion as America. How long will it be at this 
rate before our homelands will be saved? 
Must countless millions die without Christ, 
while we are trying to win white men, 
most of whom have heard of him hundreds 
of times? Not so did Christ direct his disci- 
ples. He did not tell them that the best way to 
influence the world was to regenerate their 
own land, though such an argument would 
have had greater force than it has now. He 
sent them out w T ith orders to preach at once 
not only at home but abroad. It is the duty of 
American Christians to seek to convert 
America, and the British Christians to seek to 
convert Great Britain. But that is not their 
only duty, just as the conversion of Palestine 
was not the only duty of the early Church. 
I am not urging neglect of our responsibilities 
at home, but simply replying to the frequent 
objection that they are a reason why 
subordinate attention should be given to our 
responsibilities abroad. The Christian of to- 
day, like the Christian of the first century, 
has a God-ordained mission to the world which 
cannot wait upon the indifference or hostility of 
people at home. 

Indeed no nation ever will be wholly Chris- 
tianized, for not only will there always be in- 
dividuals who refuse or neglect to accept 
Christ, but before any one generation can be 



Missionary Enterprise and Its Critics 211 



converted, a new generation of young people 
will have grown up and the work must thus 
be ever beginning anew. The argument, there- 
fore, that we should not preach the gospel 
to other nations until our own has been con- 
verted issues in an absurdity, since it would 
perpetually confine Christianity to those na- 
tions which already have it and would forever 
forbid its extension. 

"Missionaries are forcing another civiliza- " Fo A r ? in « 

... . An Alien 

tion on lands which already have civilizations u^on Z Them' 
of their own that are adapted to their needs." 
No other objection is more common and no 
other is more baseless. The missionary does 
not force his civilization upon the natives, nor 
does he interfere with native customs, except 
when they are morally wrong. A higher type 
of civilization does indeed follow the labors 
of the missionaries; but this is an incidental 
result, not an object. Even if it were other- 
wise, the Hon. Charles Denby expresses the 
opinion that, "if by means of gentle persuasion 
we can introduce Western modes and methods 
into China, we are simply doing for her what 
has been done, in one way or another, for every 
nation on the globe." As for forcing religion, 
no native is obliged to become a Christian a Misuse of 

. Language 

against his will. The missionary simply of- 
fers and explains the gospel. Surely he has as 
much right to do this as English and American 



212 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



'•Their 
Religions 
Are Good 
Enough " 



The Need 
in China 



manufacturers have to offer and explain their 
flour and cotton and machinery and liquor. 
"To talk to persons who choose to listen; to 
throw open wide the doors of chapels where 
natives who desire may hear the Christian faith 
explained and urged upon their attention; to 
sell at half-cost or to give the Bible and Chris- 
tian literature freely to those who may care to 
read ; to heal the sick without cost ; to instruct 
children whose parents are desirous that they 
should receive education — surely none of these 
constitute methods or practises to which the 
word 'force' may be applied, under any allow- 
able use of the English language." 1 

'The religions of other races are good 
enough for them.' 1 Then they are "good 
enough" for us, for the peoples of "other races" 
are our fellow men, with the needs of our com- 
mon humanity. We have not heard, however, 
of any critic who believes that Islam or Hin- 
duism or Buddhism are "good enough" for 
Europeans and Americans, and we have scant 
respect for the Pharisaism which asserts that 
they will suffice for the Persians and East 
Indians and Chinese. 

The Chinese are justly considered the strong- 
est of the non-christian races, but Chang Chih- 
tung, Viceroy of Hu-peh and Hu-nan, writes 
with sorrow of "lethargy, sensuality, and 

1 The Hon. Chester Holcombe. 



Missionary Enterprise and Its Critics 213 

vice/' and he frankly adds : "Confucianism, 
as now practised, is inadequate to lift us from 
the present plight." 1 The Emperor himself 
recognized the justice of this characterization, 
for he declared in an imperial rescript that he 
had "carefully inspected the volume" and that 
"it embodies a fair and candid statement 
of facts." Answering a question whether it 
is worth while to send foreign teachers to sup- 
plant the old religions by Christianity, the Hon. 
Charles Denby wrote: "As Buddhism un- 
doubtedly exercises a salutary influence on the 
national life of China, so the introduction of 
Christianity now will instruct, improve, and 
elevate the Buddhists. The adoption of 
Christianity means to the Chinese a new educa- 
tion. He becomes mentally regenerate. He 
abandons senseless and hoary superstitions. 
His reasoning powers are awakened. He 
learns to think. The world has not yet dis- 
covered any plan for the spreading of civiliza- 
tion which is comparable to the propagation 
of Christianity." 

It is difficult to understand how an Ameri- andthl anity 
can or European who inherits all the blessings ™™£ t %£ nr 
of our Christian faith, can deny those bless- 
ings to the rest of the world. Christianity 
found the white man's ancestors in the forests 
and swamps of northern Europe, considerably 



Chang Chih-tung, China* s Only Hope, 74. 75. 95. 96, 123, 145. 



214 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



lower in the scale of civilization than the Chi- 
nese and Japanese of to-day. Jerome wrote 
that when "a boy, living in Gaul, he beheld 
the Scots, a people in Britain, eating human 
flesh; though there were plenty of cattle and 
sheep at their disposal, yet they would prefer 
a ham of the herdsman or a slice of the female 
breast as a luxury." The gospel of Christ 
brought us out of the pit of barbarism. Why 
should we doubt its power to do for other 
races what it has done for ours ? 
T h . oG f"P el The notion that each nations's religion is 

is for All t o 

best for it, and should, therefore, not be dis- 
turbed, is never made by those who have a 
proper understanding of Christianity or of its 
relation to the race. It is based upon the old 
paganism which believed that each tribe had 
its own god who was its special champion 
against all the other gods. Such an idea is 
not only false in itself, but it is directly con- 
trary to the teachings of Christ, who declared 
that his gospel was for all men and that it 
was the supreme duty of his followers to carry 
it to all men. 

A^ompiish es "Missionaries are accomplishing very little/' 
very Little" This objection might fairly offset the objection 
that missionaries are making revolutionary 
changes. Both cannot be true. The fact is 
that missionary work is remarkably successful, 
and more so now than ever before. 



Missionary Enterprise and Its Critics 215 



The justification of foreign mission effort SeaterYncreaBe 
is not dependent upon tabulated results, but Effected 
it is nevertheless interesting to note them. The 
natural presumptions would be that Christian- 
ity would make very slow progress in a heathen 
land, for it is regarded with suspicion as an 
alien faith. It is opposed by a powerful priest- 
hood and at variance with long-established cus- 
toms. Family ties, social position, caste preju- 
dice, combine to keep one from confessing 
Christ. It would not be reasonable, therefore, 
to expect as high a percentage of increase as 
at home, where centuries of Christian work 
have prepared the soil and created an atmos- 
phere, where Christianity is popular and 
worldly motives blend with religious to attract 
men to the Church. 

But what are the comparative facts? The o3£"n*the 
average annual increase of the Protestant Forei & nField 
Churches in America is .0283 per cent., 1 while 
the increase on the foreign field is .0685 per 
cent. 2 The government census in India shows 
that while the population from 1891 to 1901 
increased two and a half per cent., the Protes- 
tant Church membership increased fifty per 
cent. The gain in China in twenty years has 
been over 100 per cent. 3 The first Protestant 

l Dr. H. K. Carroll, The Christian Advocate, 1903 -1908. 
2 Dr. D. L. Leonard, Missionary Review of the World, 1903-1908. 
3 From 80,682, in 1887, to 191,985, in 1906, not counting 136,126 
catechumens. 



2i6 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



A Record 
Without 
Parallel 



Canon Farrar's 

Trenchant 

Conclusion 



missionary arrived in the Philippine Islands in 
1899; within nine years about 30,000 adult 
communicants were received. In 1886, the 
Korea missionaries reported the first convert. 
Seven years later, there were only about 100 
in the whole country. Now there are 120,000 
Christians. While not all mission fields have 
been as fruitful as those that have been men- 
tioned, the general rate of progress is excellent, 
the number of baptisms in foreign mission 
lands in 1907 being 141,127. 

In spite of the advantages in Europe and 
America — historic associations, favorable pub- 
lic opinion, splendid churches, numerous 
workers — Christianity is making more rapid 
progress on the foreign field than in the home 
field. We have been working in heathen lands 
only about a hundred years, in most fields far 
less than this, and yet the number of converts 
is already greater than the number of Chris- 
tians in the Roman Empire at the end of the 
first century. No other work in the world is so 
successful and no other yields such large re- 
turns for the expenditures made. 

"To sneer at missionaries," said Canon Far- 
rar, — "a thing so cheap and so easy to do — 
has always been the fashion of libertines and 
cynics and worldings. So far from having 
failed, there is no work of God which has re- 
ceived so absolute, so unprecedented a blessing. 



Missionary Enterprise and Its Critics 217 

To talk of missionaries as a failure is to talk 
at once like an ignorant and faithless man." 

QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER VII 

Aim : To Estimate the Value of the Current Criti- 
cisms Against Missionaries 

1. What are the principal difficulties encountered 
by the foreign missionary that are not ordi- 
narily found at home? Arrange these in order 
of importance. 

2. How well prepared are the social customs of 
non-christian lands to fit in with a religion like 
Christianity? 

3. In what ways do the differences of traditions 
and ideals tend toward misunderstanding be- 
tween the people of the East and the West? 

4. How long and under what circumstances do 
you think a man ought to study problems 
created by these difficulties in orHer to criticise 
them intelligently? 

5. Is there any class of persons who have better 
opportunities than the missionaries to study 
these problems intelligently? 

6. For what reasons is the average missionary 
better qualified to understand the people than 
the average trader or diplomat? 

7. What arrangements have missionaries on the 
field for exchanging views with one another 
and shaping broad policies? 

8. What criticisms have you heard from those 
who were earnest friends of the enterprise? 



218 Why and How of Foreign Missions 

9. Do these criticisms involve the general body 
of missionaries, or only certain individuals? 

10. Are these criticisms more serious than those 
passed by earnest Christians on methods of 
work at home? 

It. Do they justify failure to support the enter- 
prise? 

12. Which body do you think has the best right 
to criticize the other, the missionaries or the 
home Church? 

13. What credentials have we a right to demand 
from critics of missions? 

14. What questions would you ask of a globe- 
trotter who returned with an unfavorable im- 
pression of missionary work? 

15. Why is it that so many casual travelers re- 
ceive such impressions? 

16. If some missionaries are really inferior men, 
do you think it is the fault of the denomina- 
tional boards? 

17. What wise and practicable measures at pres- 
ent neglected would you suggest to raise the 
standard of the missionary body? 

18. What percentage of Church members in this 
country do you consider "genuine"? 

19. Do you think a larger percentage would endure 
martyrdom for Christ than was true of the 
Chinese Christians? 

20. What special motives has the missionary more 
than all other foreigners for cultivating the 
friendship of the people among whom he 
works? 



Missionary Enterprise and Its Critics 219 

21. What more than others have missionaries done 
for the communities in which they live? 

22. Would we be justified in witholding Chris- 
tianity from a nation, even if the presentation 
of it should arouse hatred in some individ- 
uals? 

23. How would you solve the problem of deliv- 
ering a man from degrading national customs, 
without denationalizing him in any way? 

24. Was the Church at home more or less strong 
than it is to-day when the Holy Spirit sent out 
Barnabas and Paul? 

25. What would you consider a fair distribution 
of workers and money between the 80,000,000 
of our population at home and the over 300,- 
000,000 of the non-christian world, for whom 
the Christians of America may justly be held 
responsible? 

26. If God really intended Christ for the whole 
world, which has the better reason to complain 
of neglect, the Church at home or the Church 
abroad? 

27. Why is the civilization of Christendom supe- 
rior to that of the non-christian world? 

28. What has Christianity done for the civiliza- 
tion of Europe? 

29. Will the Christ who has been a blessing to 
Europe be a curse to Asia and Africa? 

30. How do you account for the fact that Chris- 
tianity progresses more rapidly on the foreign 
field than at home, if the work is not well- 
pleasing to God? 



THE SPIRIT OF THE MISSIONARY 



Mrs. Judson chose to give up her children for her 
Lord's poor children in Burma; and after many a long 
tender caress, she had bidden them good-by, and the 
great steamer turned her prow toward the open sea. 
The almost broken-hearted mother stood and watched 
the vessel until through the mist in her eyes it had 
ceased to be even a speck on the distant horizon, and 
then turning into her room sank into her chair and 
exclaimed: "All this I do for the sake of my Lord." 

— Charles B. Galloway 

To this is added the decision to spend that life of 
chosen poverty in a foreign land, in most cases, amid 
unfavorable surroundings, far away from personal 
friends, among people who misunderstand his motives 
and misinterpret his acts. In his life the missionary 
faces with the people the uncertainties of pestilence, and 
he is always amid the insanitary conditions of uncivil- 
ized lands. Whatever may be said, viewed from a 
merely physical standpoint, the life of the missionary is 
full of personal sacrifice from beginning to end. 

— James L. Barton 

Tell Horace's mother to tell my boy Horace that 
his father's last wish is that, when he is twenty-five 
years of age, he may come to China as a missionary. 

— Horace Tracy Pitkin 



222 



VIII 



THE SPIRIT OF THE MISSIONARY 



WE join the missionary in protesting Liklother 65 
against the impression that he is essen- christians 
tially different from other good men. There 
is no halo about his head. He is not a saint on 
a pedestal. He does not stand with clasped 
hands and uplifted eyes, gazing rapturously in- 
to heaven. We have met more than a thou- 
sand missionaries, and we have been impressed 
by the fact that they are neither angels nor 
ascetics, but able, sensible, and devoted Chris- 
tian workers. The typical missionary is more 
like a high-grade Christian business man of 
the homeland than a professional cleric. He 
is preeminently a man of affairs. He makes 
no pathetic plea for sympathy for himself, but 
he wants cooperation in his work, and to have 
people at home feel that the work is theirs as 
well as his. 

The physical hardships of missionary life Hardships, in 
are less than are commonly supposed. Steam Decreased 63 ' 
and electricity have materially lessened the iso- 
lation that was once so trying. Mail, which 

a generation ago arrived only once in six 
223 



224 Why and How of Foreign Missions 

months, now comes once or twice a week. 
Swift steamers bring many conveniences of 
civilization that were formerly unobtainable. 
The average missionary has a comfortable 
house and sufficient food and clothing. His 
labors, too, have been lightened in important 
respects by the toil of his predecessors. He 
finds languages reduced to written form, text- 
books to aid him in his studies, and a variety 
of substantial helps of other kinds. 

There are many fields, however, where con- 
ditions are not so pleasant. Those who com- 
plain of a New York August can hardly 
realize the meaning of an Indian hot season, 
when life is almost unendurable by night as 
well as by day for months at a time. The West- 
ern world is appalled by a case of bubonic 
plague on an arriving ship, and it frantically 
quarantines and disinfects everything and 
everybody from the suspected country ; but dur- 
ing all those awful months when plague raged 
unchecked in India, the missionaries steadily 
toiled at their posts. We are panic-stricken 
if cholera is reported in New York harbor 
or yellow fever in New Orleans; but cholera 
nearly always prevails in Siam, and yellow 
fever in Brazil, while smallpox is so common in 
Africa that it does not cause remark. Sanita- 
tion means much to the Anglo-Saxon; but, 
save in Japan, the Asiatic knows little about 



Spirit of the Missionary 



225 



it and the African nothing at all. What would 
be the condition of an American city if there 
were no sewers or paved streets, if garbage 
were left to rot in the sun, and all offal were 
thrown into the streets? That is actually 
the condition in the villages of Africa 
and in most of the cities of Asia, except 
where the foreigner has forced the natives to 
clean up. Several years ago a Methodist 
Bishop solemnly affirmed that he identified 
seventy-two distinct smells in Peking. The 
city is cleaner now, but it cannot be called 
sanitary yet, while the native cities of Chefoo 
and Shanghai appall the visitor by their nasti- 
ness. Everywhere in the interior vermin liter- 
ally swarms in the native inns, and usually in 
the homes of the people. 

But while the physical hardships are less nlSEships 
than are commonly supposed, the mental hard- 
ships are greater. 

First among these is loneliness. This is Loneliness 
not felt so much in the port cities, for there are 
foreign communities, occasional visitors, and 
frequent communication with the rest of the 
world. But in the interior the isolation is 
very depressing. Letters from home friends 
which were at first numerous, gradually become 
less frequent, till relatives and board secretaries 
become almost the only correspondents and the 
lonely missionary feels that he is forgotten by 



226 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



the world of which he was once a part — "out 
of sight, out of mind/' 
ESvVronmeiTt 2 At home, too, while we are conscious of a 
Lacking downward pressure, we are also conscious of 
a sustaining and uplifting force. Few of us 
realize to what an extent we are upborne by en- 
vironment. There is everything to buoy us 
up — the companionship of friends, the re- 
straints of a wholesome public sentiment, and 
the inspiration of many meetings and confer- 
ences. We are situated morally, as one is 
sometimes situated physically, in a crowd, so 
wedged in that he cannot fall. But on the 
foreign field there is little to hold one up and 
much to pull him down. There is no public 
Christian sentiment to sustain, few associa- 
tions to cheer, no support from large numbers 
of neighboring friends and ministers. 
st£i£ stant It is desperately hard to stand alone, and 
the missionary must often stand alone. All 
the customs of the country are against him; 
all its standards below him. He receives 
nothing, but is expected to give everything. 
There is a constant strain upon his sympathies 
and his spiritual vitality, with nothing to feed 
the springs of his own spiritual life. The ten- 
dencies are down, down, always down. The 
man who lives in an interior city of China or 
Africa may be compared to the workman who 
toiled in the caissons of the great bridge over 



Spirit of the Missionary 



227 



the East River, New York, where the pressure 
of the unnatural atmosphere affected the 
heart and lungs and imagination to the point 
of utter collapse. In the words of Benjamin 
Kidd: 

"In climatic conditions which are a burden pg£H 8 Sf B 
to him ; in the midst of races in a different and the Tr °P ics 
lower stage of development; divorced from 
the influences which have produced him, from 
the moral and political environment from 
which he sprang, the white man does not in 
the end, in such circumstances, tend so much 
to raise the level of the races amongst whom 
he has made his unnatural home, as he tends 
himself to sink slowly to the level around him. 
In the tropics, the white man lives and works 
only as a diver lives and works under water. 
Alike in a moral, in an ethical, and in a political 
sense, the atmosphere he breathes must be that 
of another region than that which produced 
him and to which he belongs. Neither physic- 
ally, morally, nor politically, can he be ac- 
climatized in the tropics. The people among 
whom he lives and works are often separated 
from him by thousands of years of develop- 
ment." 

Then there is the weary monotony of mis- Mi ? s n S ionaV£tfe 
sionary life. The novelty of new scenes soon 
wears off, and the missionary is confronted 
by prosaic realities. It is impossible for the 



228 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



minister in the United States to understand the 
depressing sameness of life in the interior of 
China. The few associates of the missionary- 
are subject to the debilitating influences which 
depress him. It is difficult for any woman in 
America to know what it means for Mrs. A. 
to live from one year's end to another without 
seeing another white woman except Mrs. B., 
who, though a devoted missionary, is not ex- 
actly the person that Mrs. A. would have 
chosen for an intimate associate if she had been 
consulted. We at home can choose our friends, 
and if Mr. X. is not congenial, we do not have 
to be intimate with him; but the missionary 
has no choice. He must accept the intimacy 
of the family assigned to his station whether 
he likes it or not. 
chiwren on from ^he se P ara tion f rom children is harder still. 

There comes a time in the life of every mis- 
sionary parent when he realizes that he cannot 
properly educate his child amid the appallingly 
unfavorable conditions of a heathen land. The 
whole tone of society is so low that it is all 
that the missionary can possibly do to keep 
himself up to the level of the homeland. In- 
deed, he is painfully conscious that he fre- 
quently fails to do it, and that one of the urgent 
necessities of a furlough is not so much to get 
physical rest, as to tone himself up again men- 
tally and spiritually in a Christian atmosphere. 



Spirit of the Missionary 



229 



What then can be expected for his immature 
child but degeneration? 

The average missionary therefore must Pare^He^ts 
send his children to the homeland to be edu- 
cated. We hope that none of the mothers 
who read these pages will ever have occasion 
to know what a heart strain is involved in 
placing ten thousand miles in distance and 
years in time between parent and child. There 
are chambers of the human heart that are never 
opened save by a baby's hand. After the ten- 
drils of the soul's affection have wound round 
a child, after a soft, tiny hand has been felt 
on the face, and the little one's life has literally 
grown into that of the parent, separation is a 
fearful wrench. 

There is, too, the distress which every sensi- D?stress able 
tive mind feels in looking upon suffering that 
one is unable to relieve. Sir William Hunter 
said that there are a hundred millions of peo- 
ple in India who never know the sensation of a 
full stomach. An equally great number in 
China live so near starvation that a drought or 
a flood precipitates an appalling famine. All 
over Asia, one sees disease and bodily injury 
so untended, or what is worse, mistended, that 
the resultant condition is as dreadful as it is 
intolerable. Dr. John G. Kerr of Canton was 
so overcome by the sufferings of the neglected 
insane in that great city that he could not 



230 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



endure them, and when he could not 
get help from America, he started an 
asylum at his own risk. Mrs. A. T. Mills 
of Chefoo felt driven to the same course by 
the pitiful condition of deaf-mute children. 
Heathenism is grievously hard on the poor and 
the sick and the crippled, while the woes of 
women in maternity are awful beyond descrip- 
tion. Yet, amid such daily scenes, the mission- 
ary must live. 

Debaiin^vice Then there is the mental suffering which 
and immorality comes to any pure-minded man or woman in 
constant contact with the most debasing forms 
of sin. Most Asiatics have no sense of wrong 
regarding many of the matters that we have 
been taught to regard as evil. They are un- 
truthful and immoral. The first chapter of the 
Epistle to the Romans is still a literal descrip- 
tion of heathenism. Its society is utterly 
rotten, and nowhere else in all Asia is it more 
licentious than in Japan, which is lauded as 
the most intelligent and advanced of all Asiatic 
nations. We do not forget that there is immor- 
ality in America, but here it is compelled to 
lurk in secret places. It is opposed not only 
by the Churches, but by civil law and public 
sentiment. In Asia, vice is public and shame- 
less, enshrined in the very temples. We saw 
the filthiest representations of it in the great 
Lama Temple in the capital of China. India, 



Spirit of the Missionary 



231 



which boasts of its ancient civilization, makes 
its most sacred places literally reek with vice. 
The missionary often finds his own motives 
grossly misjudged by hostile priests and pru- 
rient people. The typical Asiatic scoffs at the 
idea that the missionaries come to him for an 
unselfish purpose. A single man is often mis- 
understood; a single woman is nearly always 
misunderstood. Heathen customs do not pro- 
vide for the pure unmarried woman, and 
charges are freely circulated, and sometimes 
placarded on walls or buildings, in ways that 
are most trying. 

The soul in such an atmosphere feels as if suffocating 
it would suffocate. The pressure of abnormal Atmos P here 
conditions tends to debilitation. It sets nerves 
on edge and exposes to diseases, mental as 
well as physical. 

Another phase of the strain of missionary spiritual Burden 
life is the spiritual burden. To look upon 
myriads of human beings who are bearing life's 
loads unaided and meeting life's sorrows un- 
helped, to offer them the assistance that they 
need for time and for eternity, and to have 
the offer fall upon deaf ears — this is a grievous 
thing. Nothing in the missionary life is harder 
than this for the man or the woman who has 
gone to the foreign field from true missionary 
motives. It is akin to the strain that broke 
Christ's heart in three years; for it was this 



232 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



Physical Danger 



Why 

Missionaries 
Persistently 
Hold Their 
Posts 



The 

Soldier Spirit 



that killed him, and not alone the nails or the 
spear. 

The factor of physical danger is not so 
common now as formerly, but it is not wanting, 
even to-day. There are martyrs' graves in 
India, China, Africa, Persia, Turkey, and the 
South Sea Islands. In some lands, missionaries 
are insolently denied the rights guaranteed 
by treaty to every American citizen. Their 
property is destroyed, their work hampered, 
their freedom of movement limited, their very 
lives menaced. 

The critic impatiently asks : "Why do mis- 
sionaries persist in remaining at their posts, 
when they know that they are jeopardizing 
their lives and bringing anxiety to their rela- 
tives and embarrassment to their government? 
Why do they not fly to the safer ports, as the 
British and American consuls often advise 
them to do ? 

Why? Partly for the same reason that the 
Spartans did not retreat at Thermopylae, that 
the engineer does not jump when he sees that 
death is ahead, that the mother does not think 
of herself when her boy is stricken with diph- 
theria. Shall the missionaries leave the native 
Christians to be scattered, the mission build- 
ings to be destroyed, the labor of years to be 
undone, the Christian name disgraced? The 
missionary is a soldier; his station is the post 



Spirit of the Missionary 233 



of duty. James Chalmers of New Guinea, of 
whom Robert Louis Stevenson said : "He's 
as big as a church/' and who was finally 
clubbed to death and eaten by cannibals, de- 
clared that "the word 'sacrifice' ought never 
to be used in Christ's service." And in a 
speech in Exeter Hall fifteen years before his 
death, he exclaimed: "Recall the twenty-one 
years, give me back all its experiences, give 
me its shipwrecks, give me its standing in the 
face of death, give it me surrounded with sav- 
ages with spears and clubs, give it me back 
with the spears flying about me, with the club 
knocking me to the ground — give it me back, 
and I will still be your missionary." 

Such missionaries form the "far-flung battle ThanP^tJfo°tic 
line" of the Church of God. The patriotism 
of Briton and American is stirred by the 
thought that the sun never sets on their do- 
minions; but a holier inspiration should thrill 
them as they realize that the sun never sets 
on their missionaries, who journey through 
heat and cold, and dust and mud, burned by 
the midday sun, drenched by sudden storms, 
eating unaccustomed food, sleeping in vermin- 
infested huts, enduring every privation incident 
to travel in uncivilized lands — and yet, in 
spite of all, instructing native helpers and 
church officers, settling disputes, visiting the 
dying, comforting the sorrowing, and above 



234 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



all and in all preaching the glad tidings of the 
kingdom of God. It can be truly said of them : 

"There is no place they have not been, 
The men of deeds and destiny ; 

No spot so wild they have not seen, 
And measured it with dauntless eye. 

They in a common danger shared, 

Nor shrunk from toil, nor want, nor pain. ,, 

unparalleled Missionary annals abound with inspiring 1 in- 

Devotion J , r ° 

stances of devotion. The last act of Dr. 
Eleanor Chesnut, one of the martyrs at Lien- 
chou, China, was to tear off a portion of the 
skirt of her dress and bind up an ugly gash on 
the head of a Chinese boy, who had been ac- 
cidentally injured by the mob. The dying words 
of Mrs. Machle were a plea to her murderers 
to accept Christ. The last letter of Mr. Peale 
was such a large-hearted expression of sym- 
pathy with the Chinese that the Chinese min- 
ister at Washington wrote : "His words seem 
to me to have a prophetic ring ; in his untimely 
death, America has lost a noble son and China 
a true friend." The first message of Dr. 
Machle, after the tragedy which cost the lives 
of his wife and daughter, was not a demand 
for revenge, but a vow to consecrate the re- 
mainder of his life to the welfare of the 
Chinese. 

foVln^hcWork Some moral triumphs are greater than the 
physical victories of war. A medical mission- 



Spirit of the Missionary 235 



ary in Persia refused a palace and a princely 
income as personal physician to the Shah, say- 
ing : "I came to Persia to relieve the distresses 
of the poor in the name of Jesus." An educa- 
tor in China declined the high-salaried presi- 
dency of an imperial university, giving as his 
reason : "I want to translate the Bible and to 
preach the gospel and to train up Christian 
ministers." An old man in Syria rode horse- 
back eight hours in a wintry storm to adminis- 
ter the communion in a mountain village. 
Another in Siam pushed his little boat up lonely 
rivers swarming with crocodiles, and tramped 
through snake and tiger-infested jungles, that 
he might preach Christ. Still another in Laos 
forgot his threescore and ten years and made 
a solitary six months' journey that he might 
take to distant peoples the tidings of the gospel. 
Twenty-six days he was drenched with dew 
and rain, ten times he had to swim his pony 
across rivers, four days he wearily tramped 
because his horse was too jaded to bear him. 
A young woman in India walks painfully from 
house to house under a blazing sun, but writes : 
'This is a delightful work, it is good to be foot- 
sore in such a cause." Another in Syria stands 
in a little gallery of a room containing about 
ten people, besides cows and goats; the 
mud floor reeking with dampness, the roof 
dripping tiny waterfalls of rain, the air heavy 



236 Why and How of Foreign Missions 

with smoke, the missionary herself racked with 
cough and flushed with fever; but tenderly 
treating two hundred patients a week and writ- 
ing: "I am very thankful to record God's 
goodness to me ; I do not believe that ever be- 
fore into one person's life came such opportuni- 
ties as I enjoy." A physician in Korea 
cleanses loathsome ulcers, opens the eyes of 
the blind, and makes the lame to walk. A 
refined woman in China makes regular visits 
to a leper colony and ministers lovingly to re- 
pulsive sufferers with sightless eyes and rotting 
limbs. 

And then the scene changes and a sick hus- 
band in Turkey asks that the photograph of 
his wife and children may be hung close to 
his bed, that he might gaze with inexpressible 
yearning into the faces of far-off dear ones 
whom he never expects to see again in the 
flesh. Alfred Marling, seventy miles from 
a physician, dies in the furnace of African 
fever, singing: 

"How sweet the name of Jesus sounds !" 

A mother in a Syrian shed lines a rude box, 
places in it the still form of her child, sends 
it away for distant burial ; and then goes back 
to her sick husband and tries to keep up a brave 
face and not let him know that her heart is 
breaking. There are little groups of moving 



Spirit of the Missionary 237 



people — husbands following to far-off ceme- 
teries the hallowed dust of their wives, widows 
walking behind the coffins of their husbands, 
Rachel mothers weeping for their children and 
"refusing to be comforted because they were 
not." "Six weeks after my arrival in China/' 
a missionary writes, "my wife, though but 
shortly before in America adjudged physically 
sound, died after only a week's illness. The 
memories of the cold, bleak, January morning 
when we laid her in that lonely grave upon the 
hillside will not soon fade from my mind. 
What a mournful little procession it was that 
passed through the streets of hostile Tsi-nan f u 
that day ! With but half a dozen of my new- 
found friends, I followed the plain coffin borne 
by coolies, whose jargon seemed all the more 
unsympathetic because I did not understand 
it. Oh ! the unspeakable desolation that sweeps 
over a little community such as many of our 
mission stations are, when death invades its 
feeble ranks. And then there must be borne 
the stifled wail reechoing from America three 
months later!" 

Who can think unmoved of that missionary ^ 
widow, who, when her husband died at an in- in 
terior station of Siam, and there was no place 
nearer than Bangkok where the body could 
be buried, caused the coffin to be placed in a 
native boat, leaving a space of eighteen inches 



238 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



wide and eight feet long on each side. She 
sat on one side and a friend on the other, and 
the native boatmen pushed the craft out upon 
the river. That was eight o'clock Friday 
morning. All day they journeyed under the 
blazing tropical sun, and the reader can imagine 
what that meant both to the living and 
the dead. When darkness fell, the stars surely 
looked down in pity upon that stricken widow 
crouching so close to the dead body of her 
husband that she could not avoid touching his 
coffin. It was not until two o'clock Saturday 
afternoon that the pitiful ride ended at 
Bangkok. Flesh and blood could not have 
borne such a strain, if God had not heard the 
dying petition of the husband, who, foreseeing 
the coming sorrow, had brokenly prayed: 
"Lord, help her !" 
DcTatHome ^ along the missionary picket-line are the 
graves of the fallen. Since, two generations 
ago, Dr. Lowrie buried his wife in India, and 
Mrs. Reed saw her husband's body weighted 
with shot and lowered into the ocean, hun- 
dreds have laid down their lives. When the 
soldiers of our country die in a foreign land, 
a grateful nation brings their bodies home at 
public expense. After the Spanish-American 
war, a funeral ship entered New York harbor, 
amid the booming of minute guns from forts 
and ships. Two days later, public buildings 



Spirit of the Missionary 



239 



were closed and ensigns were hung at half- 
mast, while the honored dust was borne 
through the nation's capital to historic Arling- 
ton. A vast multitude thronged the beautiful 
city of the dead. As the flag-draped coffins ap- 
peared, a ghostly voice seemed to say to the 
silent host : "Hats off, gentlemen ! for yonder 
come the riderless steeds, the reversed arms, the 
muffled drums. Something is here for tears." 
The President, admirals, generals, statesmen, 
diplomats, bared their heads. The weird music 
of "The Dead March" melted into the sweeter 
strains of "Nearer, my God, to Thee." The 
parting volleys were fired. Clearly and sol- 
emnly the bugler sounded taps, and the multi- 
tude turned away with tear-dimmed eyes to 
talk of a noble monument to commemorate the 
lives of heroes. 

But the dead soldiers of the cross lie where h? ne . ly 

Missionary 

they fell on our lonely missionary outposts — Graves 
amid the jungles of Africa, in the swamps of 
Siam, beside the rivers of China, and under the 
palm-trees of India. If we may adapt the 
words of Mary H. Kingsley to a class that 
she did not have in mind : "I trust that those 
at home will give all honor to the men still 
working in Africa, or rotting in the weed- 
grown, snake-infested cemeteries and the forest 
swamps — men whose battles have been fought 
out on lonely beaches far away from home and 



240 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



friends and often from another white 
man's help, sometimes with savages, but 
more often with a more deadly foe, with none 
of the anodyne to death and danger given by 
the companionship of hundreds of fellow sol- 
diers in a fight with a foe you can see, but with 
a foe you can see only incarnate in the dreams 
of your delirium, which runs as a poison in 
burning veins and aching brain — the dread 
West Coast fever." 

Edward Everett Hale's poem, "All Souls," 
eloquently voices the debt which succeeding 
generations owe to the courage and fidelity 
of the forgotten missionary as well as to the 
pioneer settler : 

"What was his name ? I do not know his name : 
I only know he heard God's voice and came, 
Brought all he loved across the sea, 
To live and work for God — and me; 
Felled the ungracious oak, 
Dragged from the soil 
With torrid toil 
Thrice gnarled roots and stubborn rock, 
With plenty piled the haggard mountainside. 
And at the end, without memorial, died; 
Xo blaring trumpet sounded out his fame; 
He lived, he died; I do not know his name. 

"No form of bronze and no memorial stones 
Show me the place where lie his moldering bones. 
Only a cheerful city stands, 
Built by his hardened hands; 



Spirit of the Missionary 241 



Only ten thousand homes, 
Where every day 
The cheerful play 
Of love and hope and courage comes. 
These are his monument and these alone; 
There is no form of bronze and no memorial stone. ,, 

QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER VIII 

Aim: To Appreciate that Spirit Which Alone Is 
Sufficient for the Missionary in His Surround- 
ings 

1. In what ways is the life of the ordinary mis- 
sionary similar to that of minister, physician, 
or teacher at home? 

2. Mention a number of ways in which obstacles 
that confronted the earlier missionaries have 
been removed. 

3. Name the three principal physical discomforts 
of the average missionary in the tropics. 

4. Mention the same of the average missionary 
in the temperate zone. 

5. What difference in this respect is there between 
those working in civilized and uncivilized re- 
gions? 

6. Name all the classes of persons with whom 
you have helpful social intercourse. 

7. What are the principal things that render this 
intercourse pleasant and helpful? 

8. To what extent are you conscious of common 
sympathies with your fellow citizens? 

9. How do your privileges in this respect com- 
pare with those of the average missionary? 



242 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



10. Which of his social deprivations would be 
hardest for you ? 

11. How does the average missionary compare 
with the average minister at home in oppor- 
tunities for intellectual stimulus? 

12. What are the things from which you derive 
most spiritual inspiration and help? 

13. How much of these are available for the mis- 
sionary at a small station? 

14. Try to estimate what you owe to the silent 
influence of earnest men in your community. 

15. Try to estimate what you owe to public 
opinion. 

16. What effect would it have upon you to be 
constantly surrounded by distress which you 
were unable to relieve? 

17. Why would you hesitate to have a brother of 
yours live in a community that was lacking in 
high moral ideals? 

18. Try to estimate the moral strain upon those 
living in heathen communities without a mis- 
sionary purpose. 

19. What do you think would be the effect on 
yourself of having to preach for months or 
years at a time without results? 

20. How, in your opinion, would the average 
critic of missionary work succeed in overcom- 
ing these obstacles? 

21. Was Christ ignorant of the difficulty of the 
task when he ordered his disciples to teach 
all nations? 



Spirit of the Missionary 243 



22. If you were starting as a missionary, what 
resolves would you make as to your personal 
spiritual life? 

23. What resolves would you make as to your 
attitude toward your fellow missionaries? 

24. What, as to your attitude toward the native 
Christians ? 

25. What, as to your attitude toward the non- 
christian natives? 

26. To what extent would these resolves be useful 
for Christians at home? 

27. Name the principal things that bring spiritual 
stimulus to the missionaries on the field. 

28. What are the principal things that you would 
include in a full definition of the missionary 
spirit ? 

29. What is the reward to those who overcome 
all these obstacles? 



THE HOME CHURCH AND THE 
ENTERPRISE 



245 



I don't know anything that will commit the Church 
of Christ more completely to the devotional life, that 
will take it more often to the throne of God, that will 
give it more permanently and consistently a sense of 
the indwelling of the Spirit of Christ, than this habitual 
confronting of the Church's task in the world. 

— William Douglas Mackenzie 

When we once see that systematic benevolence is the 
most wide-reaching embodiment of spiritual energy 
and the most Godlike expression of it, we conclude that 
our next business as an organization is to cultivate 
systematic benevolence. Ours is an educational move- 
ment. The great test and sign of advancing culture is 
systematic instead of spasmodic expression of the soul. 

— L. Call Barnes 

Not alone are the workers to come and be equipped 
by prayer; it is only by prayer that we shall call forth 
the great energies by which the world is to be evangel- 
ized. I believe as earnestly as any man in sending out 
adequate numbers of missionaries from America, but 
it is not by these men and women that the world is to 
be evangelized. If we lay on these men and women the 
whole work of evangelizing the world, the product will 
not be worth the outlay. . . . And only by prayer 
will great leaders be raised up in the native Churches, 
and it is for these leaders that we are waiting 
now in the missionary enterprise. As far as the 
native Churches have had such leaders, during the 
century that is gone, they had them as men of prayer 
who were supported by prayer. 

— Robert E. Speer 



246 



IX 



THE HOME CHURCH AND THE 
ENTERPRISE 

WE have considered the phases of the for- conIfle?ed eady 
eign missionary enterprise which are 
most important from the view-point of the 
home Christian. We have seen that the mo- 
tives for the prosecution of the w r ork are those 
which form a necessary part of true Christian 
character, and that they make their claim upon 
every true follower of Christ. We have noted 
that a vital part of the aim of foreign missions 
is to place every land where it can do its own 
home mission work, on a basis which was 
reached by the nations of Christendom cen- 
turies ago. The work of foreign missions will 
be done in China long before China is Chris- 
tianized as far as America. We merely wish to 
make it possible for China to Christianize 
herself. 

We have studied the administration of the leaning tous 
boards, and found that they observe every 
reasonable precaution in securing such econ- 
omy as is consistent with efficiency, both as to 
office expenses and as to the support of mis- 
sionaries on the field. The money contributed 
247 



248 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



by the Church is being conscientiously used. 
We have explained the qualifications required 
in candidates and the care with which they are 
selected. Then we have seen the missionary 
at work among the distinctive conditions that 
confront him. We have observed the problems 
involved in the establishment of a self-propa- 
gating, self-supporting, self-governing native 
Church — the goal of missionary endeavor. We 
have examined the criticisms of missionaries 
which are more or less current, and found them 
to be for the most part products either of mis- 
understanding or of antichristian prejudice. 
Finally, we have shown something of the spirit 
of the missionary, a spirit which we are under 
equal obligation to exhibit. And now the ques- 
tion arises : What concern have we in all these 
things ? 

of h owigS?on The foreign missionary enterprise is not the 
exclusive business of the workers on the field, 
nor of the boards at home, nor does it rest 
solely upon rectors or members of local mis- 
sionary societies. It rests upon every indi- 
vidual Christian. The responsibilities and privi- 
leges of the Christian life are inseparable, and 
no one who repudiates the former has any right 
to claim the latter. If our nation were en- 
gaged in a righteous war, and there came a 
special call for troops, those best qualified to 
go would feel the obligation to respond, while 



Home Church and Enterprise 249 

enormous appropriations of funds would be 
ungrudgingly made. If the first supply of 
troops proved inadequate, if our armies were 
defeated and the national treasury exhausted, 
it is safe to say that many would offer their 
services who were not well fitted to go and 
could ill be spared at home, while great finan- 
cial sacrifices would be freely made by all 
classes of citizens in furnishing the necessary 
funds. Only the need would measure the 
supply. We feel that, whatever the cost, 
our flag must be supported when it goes forth 
to war. In like manner, the need of the foreign 
missionary campaign ordered by Christ is the 
measure of the obligation of the Church. By 
a claim even higher than that of patriotism, 
we have a right to expect that the needs will be 
met. 

What are the needs? In the first place, deeded 
the force on the field must be greatly in- 
creased. Making all due allowance for the 
duty of the growing native churches, we ought 
to have at least one man missionary for every 
50,000 of the 1,000,000,000 people of the non- 
christian world, besides a proportionate num- 
ber of women workers. The present force con- 
sists of only 8,537 men, clerical and lay, and 
this number includes the sick, the aged, re- 
cruits learning the language, and the consider- 
able number always absent on furlough. It is 



250 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



Enlarged 
Giving Required 



A Possible Goal 



safe to say that the effective force of men does 
not exceed 7,000, or one for every 142,857 of 
the population. This means that the average 
board would need to multiply its force nearly 
three times in order to provide one man for 
every 50,000 people living in non-christian 
countries. 

To support this increase, the present rate 
of giving must be proportionately enlarged. 
Each man represents an annual cost of ap- 
proximately $2,000, this sum covering not 
only his support and that of his family, but 
his outfit, traveling expenses, and the addi- 
tional work which he calls into existence. 
Thus, 14,000 more men would involve an in- 
creased expenditure of $28,000,000 a year, 
and this would take no account of the property 
that would be required for the residences, 
colleges, boarding-schools, theological sem- 
inaries, hospitals, and printing-presses which 
would have to be provided and equipped. 

If volunteers and funds are to be provided 
on an adequate scale, the home Church must 
be kept informed and aroused to the need. 
What w r e lack is not ability, but interest. A 
thoroughly awakened Church could accomplish 
a large part of the aim of foreign missions 
in a generation. If all congregations and in- 
dividuals would do in proportion to their abil- 
ity what some congregations and individuals 



Home Church and Enterprise 251 



The Secular 
School 



are already doing, some of us might live to 
see the successful termination of the foreign 
missionary enterprise; that is, each land, not 
indeed completely Christianized, but equipped 
with a native Church able to handle its own 
problems. The key to the present situation, 
therefore, is found ultimately in the interest 
of the home Church. Interest depends on the 
right sort of knowledge. Our first need is for 
a campaign of education. 

The three main agencies of education are 
the home, the school, and the church. It has 
come about that the first-named does very little . 
that is systematic, and that the two latter have 
divided the field, one taking secular and the 
other religious instruction. Whatever the 
shortcomings of the school, it is at least at- 
tacking its problems in earnest. It does its 
work on a vast scale and expects taxpayers 
to furnish it with adequate equipment. It 
claims all the children of school-going age for 
twenty to thirty hours each week, and pro- 
vides trained and salaried teachers for their 
instruction. If there is one thing to which the 
American people are thoroughly committed, 
it is secular education, and they view these 
efforts and meet these demands with supreme 
satisfaction. 

When we turn to religious education, ^ReifgiouV 
we find that much less is being done. The 



Education 



252 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



Sunday-school is a regular institution in every 
section of the country, and an immense army 
of scholars assembles every week. Millions 
of quarterlies and other lesson helps are printed 
annually, and county, state, and national or- 
ganizations hold numerous conventions to dis- 
cuss problems and arouse enthusiasm. We 
have great cause for gratitude to God for all 
that has been accomplished in the religious 
instruction of our children and young people; 
but in comparison with secular education we 
must admit that there are three conspicuous 
weaknesses in the system. 
Tim e fficient *■ R- e ligi° us education receives only a frac- 
tion of the time that the secular school obtains, 
the period available for class work being only 
one fortieth as long. If we consider education 
as the handing down of a body of information, 
the secular school has certainly more to com- 
municate, especially in these latter days. But 
if the main purpose of education is to help 
us to be and do, rather than merely to know, 
the relative importance of the religious side 
of education is greatly increased. In any 
event, half or three quarters of an hour once a 
week does not afford sufficient time. 
Relatively 2 - Teachers receive far less training for 
untrained re iigi us than for secular work. Small as 
are the salaries of the teachers in public 
schools, they are not paid over to those al- 



Home Church and Enterprise 



253 



together without qualification. On the other 
hand, while the body of Sunday-school teachers 
includes some of the most able and cultured 
people in the country, it also includes many 
who could never pass the public school 
test. In some localities, teachers are in such 
demand that any one willing to take a class 
is pressed into service, and no questions are 
asked. 

3. The curriculum of the Sunday-school cS^Sfm* 
is yet very meager. This is almost a neces- 
sary consequence of the two other weaknesses. 
There is time for only one thing, which of 
course is the Bible, and owing to the general 
lack of trained teachers even this is too often 
not presented in any richness of content. All 
other subjects are virtually excluded. 

From the missionary view-point, these ?hSl dy for 
weaknesses are most grievous. They mean Weaknesses 
that millions of children pass through our 
Sunday-schools without any adequate instruc- 
tion on the greatest task of the Christian 
Church, that millions of our young people and 
adults are to-day without any more consecutive 
ideas on the subject than they may have picked 
up in merely occasional missionary sermons, 
or in the too fugitive treatment of missionary 
meetings. How shall we reach these persons 
with clear, connected, and inspiring missionary 
instruction ? 



254 Why and How of Foreign Missions 

The mission study class has been found a 
great help in the solution of this difficult prob- 
lem. It avoids the time difficulty by holding 
separate sessions for short weekly courses, at 
hours that prove most convenient to the small 
groups composing them. It is gradually sup- 
plying a body of persons who know something 
about missions and are able to teach others. It 
will probably be for some time to come the 
best way of reaching young people and adults 
with systematic missionary instruction. By 
filling its members with knowledge and en- 
thusiasm it will help to make it practicable to 
introduce an effective study of missions into 
the Sunday-school. Sunday-school teachers of 
every church should be strongly urged to enter 
a mission study class each year to get a vision 
of some field or phase of the missionary enter- 
prise. Even under present conditions, they 
will then have plenty of opportunity to develop 
missionary spirit in their scholars. Without 
such a vision, there is no likelihood that they 
will accomplish anything under any conditions, 
however favorable. 

We must spread systematic mission study 
among all classes in the church, and especially 
seek to bring under its influence those who 
appear likely to become future leaders. If the 
study and discussion of the facts presented in 
this book have helped you, you owe it to the 



Home Church and Enterprise 255 



church to share what you have received with 
others by trying to enroll them as members 
of new classes. You may feel ill-qualified to 
lead such a class, but the subject, rather than 
your ability in presenting it, may arouse those 
who will render to the cause a greater service 
than is ever permitted to you. A series of sum- 
mer conferences and winter institutes are held 
every year for the express purpose of training 
leaders in more effective methods of work, and 
are suggestive and inspiring. 

The systematic study of missions which has ofThiT clai 
arisen in the past few years is one of the Pr °P a & anda 
most promising signs of the times. It should 
be pushed until no congregation is without 
one or more study classes for the training of 
its Sunday-school teachers and the inspira- 
tion of its workers. After the way in which 
we have neglected this subject in the past, 
we owe it a generous apportionment of time 
and pains. A strong study class should prove 
a power-house for all sorts of missionary ef- 
fort in the church. It should lead to instruct- 
ive and enthusiastic missionary meetings, to 
campaigns of missionary reading, to the intro- 
duction of missionary exercises and supple- 
mentary instruction in the Sunday-school, to 
the formation of mission bands, and to in- 
creased prayer and giving and service on the 
part of all the church. 



256 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



Average Annual When it comes to giving, we must face 
the fact that the church members' average an- 
nual gift for foreign missions is less than one 
dollar per capita. Only about half of the mem- 
bership of the average church participates in 
the gifts for missions, and many rectors make 
no adequate effort to reach the other half. A 
committee of one denomination reported, a few 
years ago, that nine tenths of the contributions 
were made by one tenth of the membership. 
Some whole churches give nothing at all, and 
others give only through the women's societies, 
the pastor and all his officers standing help- 
lessly or indifferently aloof. The plea that they 
are small and weak reminds one of some little 
home missionary churches, mere handfuls of 
poor people, who send offerings for every 
one of the boards of the Church. A feeble 
congregation is made stronger by doing what 
it can. The individual Christian needs to be 
educated as to his relation to the world-wide 
mission of the Son of God and to give propor- 
tionately and prayerfully towards it, whether 
he is rich or poor, in a small church or a large 
one. 

chuA ntiochian I* ever a congregation had reason to as- 
sign local burdens as an excuse for neglecting 
foreign missions, it was the little church at 
Antioch when the Holy Ghost said : "Separate 
me Barnabas and Saul for the work where- 



Home Church and Enterprise 257 



Business 
Contrast 



unto I have called them.'' It was the only 
church in a large and wicked city. No church 
in all Europe or America has a greater work 
at home, in proportion to its resources. The 
devoted little band, however, never flinched; 
but "when they had fasted and prayed and 
laid their hands on them, they sent them 
away." Why should not the modern Church, 
with its vastly greater strength, equal the faith 
and courage of the church at Antioch ? 

No sympathy should be wasted over the E X ^°™™™ he 
common excuse that people do not have the 
money that is required. They have it in 
abundance, and they prove it by spending it 
freely on things that minister to their pleasure. 
If some have too many other burdens, they 
should diminish them. The evangelization of 
the world is too important an enter- 
prise to take what is left after everything else 
has been provided for. Many commercial en- 
terprises employ more men and expend more 
money than the Church would need for the 
evangelization of the world. Business men 
do not hesitate to attempt the most colossal 
things in secular affairs. Not content with 
the trade of America, they are competing with 
other nations for the trade of the world. The 
foreign commerce of the United States now 
runs up to billions of dollars a year. On every 
side, we hear of big buildings, big ships, big 



258 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



factories, big steel plants, which cost immense 
sums. 

sta S nd n a S rd le Why then should it be deemed fanciful for 
the Church to attempt to raise for the evangeli- 
zation of the world a sum which many of its 
members would not regard as impracticable 
for a secular enterprise? Shall we work for 
our own enrichment on a vast scale and work 
for God and our fellow men on a small one? 
Surely the Church is able to do this thing. 
I grant that not all the wealth of which we 
hear so much is tributary to foreign missions, 
that many Church members are in moderate 
circumstances and that some of them are poor. 
I remember, too, that there is Christian work 
at home which must be supported. The fact 
remains, however, that intelligent, prayerful, 
systematic, proportionate giving on the part 
of poor and rich alike would provide ample 
funds, without injustice to any family or home 
obligations. There are thousands of Chris- 
tians who do not hesitate to incur personal ex- 
penditures for a hundred times the amount that 
they give to foreign missions. 
Example The Moravian Church sets an excellent 
example to Christendom as to what can be 
done when Christians have the right ideas. 
Most of its members are poor, but it supports 
one missionary for every sixty of its member- 
ship; whereas among Baptists, Congregation- 



Home Church and Enterprise 



259 



alists, Methodists, and Presbyterians, with far 
greater wealth, it takes an average of 6,146 
members to support one missionary. Allowing 
for the aid that Moravian missions receive 
from the members of other Churches, the fact 
remains that, if all Protestant Churches would 
send out missionaries in the same proportion 
as the Moravians, there would be half a million 
missionaries on the field, a number far in 
excess of the number that it would be wise to 
send. 

We need not go into questions of method ***™| a 
of raising money. Effective ways of doing a 
thing will be easily found by one who is 
determined to do it. The boards will gladly 
send detailed information to all who ask for 
it. The important thing is to have a method, 
and to work it in such a way as to secure 
some offering from every individual, not neces- 
sarily large in amount, but proportionate to 
ability, and to reach the absentees as well as 
those who are present. 

We protest, however, against "the two-cent- f 2* littlin * 
a-week" plea. It does not secure the gift of 
the poor, it benumbs the liberality of the rich, 
and it belittles the whole enterprise. Fancy 
a minister standing before a congregation, 
whose typical member is wearing $50 worth of 
clothing and $25 worth of jewelry, whose 
household furniture has cost several thousand 



260 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



dollars, who smokes from ten to fifty cents' 
worth of tobacco a day, and who commands 
not only the conveniences, but many of the 
luxuries of life — fancy telling such a 
man that his foreign missionary responsibilities 
are met by a gift of two cents a week! He 
spends more than that for blacking his shoes. 
A proportionate gift for the average layman 
is not pennies at all, nor even silver, but bills 
or checks. 

spirit \ye insist, too, that missionary operations 
have gone about as far as they can go in de- 
pendence upon the passing-the-hat method 
among those who happen to be present at a 
given service. Inquiry in a certain State de- 
veloped the fact that only forty per cent, of 
the reported membership attended church on a 
Sunday morning of average weather condi- 
tions. Business men who are present seldom 
carry much cash on their persons. Large 
givers never have proportionate sums with 
them. If, in response to an appeal, they empty 
their pockets, they are doing all they can do, 
or, at any rate, all they will do under that 
system. This is an era of large private gifts. 
Almost every week we hear of some one be- 
stowing $100,000 or $1,000,000 on a college 
or library or hospital. The chief dependence 
of our educational and charitable institutions 
is upon contributions of this character. Is it 



Home Church and Enterprise 261 



not almost farcical for the Church to endeavor 
to maintain churches, hospitals, schools, 
colleges, theological seminaries, printing- 
presses, and a host of missionaries and native 
helpers, by plate collections as an annual inci- 
dent of public service? If we are to give the 
gospel to the world we must raise money for 
missions as we raise it for other big enter- 
prises, by subscription. The wisest pastors are 
calling for pledges instead of cash. A man 
who would unblushingly slip a quarter into a 
collection basket would never dream of sign- 
ing a card for such a sum. We have passed 
the canal-boat and stage-coach days in foreign 
missions as well as in transportation. We 
must now have money in larger sums. Our 
laymen are doing big things in business. Why 
should they not do big things for God ? 

Each church should have a committee of 
laymen to cooperate with the rector in promot- 
ing foreign missionary interest and increas- 
ing foreign missionary gifts in the congre- 
gation. This committee should do among the 
men of the church what the woman's society 
does so well among the women. Experience 
has shown that the men will make prompt re- 
sponse, if intelligent and systematic effort is 
put forth to reach them. 

Whenever an effort is made to increase gifts 
for foreign missions, there are some who raise 



Committee 
of Laymen 



Right Balance 
Between Home 
and Foreign 



262 Why and How of Foreign Missions 

a hue and cry about the alleged diversion of 
funds from home enterprises. A Presbytery 
not long ago refused to permit a missionary 
campaign within its bounds, on the ground 
that it would interfere with gifts for other 
causes. Yet official reports showed that this 
Presbytery was giving nearly ten times as 
much to home objects as to foreign. There 
is a great work to be done in the homeland, 
but it is not helped in the least by opposition 
to foreign missions. Giving to world evangeli- 
zation enlarges the mind, broadens the sympa- 
thies, and so opens the springs of benevolence 
that those who do most for foreign missions 
are usually the very ones who do most for 
home missions. Mr. Jacob A. Riis, who has 
toiled so indefatigably for the poor people of 
New York City, says that "for every dollar 
you give away to convert the heathen abroad, 
God gives you ten dollars' worth of purpose 
to deal with your heathen at home/' "A reli- 
gion/' adds Dr. Clarke, "cannot be really 
strengthened at home by declining to extend 
its blessings abroad. It is a complete mis- 
understanding of Christianity to suppose that 
some Christian Church or country, by concen- 
trating its attention and labors upon itself, can 
so accumulate power as to be able to turn in 
full vigor to do its Christian work for others 
at some later date. It was said long ago that 



Home Church and Enterprise 263 



Christianity is a commodity of which the more 
we export the more we have at home. It is 
equally true that the less we export the less 
we may find at 'home." 

The rector has the chief responsibility in of e Rector bility 
this effort to arouse the Church. But not all 
pastors are meeting their obligations in this 
matter, and even the most zealous pastor can 
accomplish little without the support of his 
members. The first advance move may need 
to come from some one in the congregation. 
The work must be done whether the pastor 
is willing to occupy his rightful place of leader- 
ship or not. 

Appeals should not be based solely on finan- consideration* 
cial necessities. The cause is cheapened by 
too much begging and pleading. The fact 
that an enterprise wants money is not a suffi- 
cient reason why it should receive it, nor is 
the begging argument apt to secure anything 
more than the beggar's temporary dole. Do 
not apologize or talk about "the needs of the 
board." As the late President Harrison pith- 
ily said : "The man whose grocery bills are 
unpaid might just as well talk about the needs 
of his butler. Present your need, the needs 
of the Church, the needs of the world, those 
claims which Church membership implies and 
which are more than life in that personal re- 
lation with the great Head of the Church." 



264 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



Personal 
Devotion 



If hearers complain: "Missions, missions, al- 
ways missions'' ; reply in the notable words of 
Bishop Doane of Albany: "Yes, always mis- 
sions, because they are the life-blood, the heart- 
beat, the lungs-breath of the body of Jesus 
Christ." 

There are many persons who can contribute 
judgment^ but little money to the missionary cause, who 
are able to render service of positive value by 
devoting their energies to stimulating in- 
terest in the Church. Work of this kind may 
count for more in the end than large gifts that 
are now being received. Two things should 
be kept in mind to this end. First, the service 
should be offered in the same spirit of sacri- 
fice which w r e expect our missionaries on the 
field to manifest. The worker should not be 
discouraged if the obstacles are at first very 
great, but should work and pray the way 
through to success. In the second place, great 
care must be taken to avoid alienating people 
by tactless behavior. We often see persons 
of undoubted zeal and consecration who make 
the cause they espouse a byword in the com- 
munity on account of the methods they employ 
to advertise it. It would be a good thing if 
we could see ourselves more frequently as 
others see us; the nearest approach to this is 
the candid advice of friends who have sound 
judgment. 



Home Church and Enterprise 265 



We must keep prominent before the Church ^chosenones 
the call to life-service on the field. There are 
so many who are not free to go or who are 
not fit to go, that the burden of proof rests 
heavily upon those who have the qualifica- 
tions to show that they are exempt. Num- 
bers of young men and women who have no 
obligation that would prevent them from ac- 
cepting a lucrative business position in a 
foreign land and whom the boards would be 
glad to appoint drift into other lines of work 
every year, largely because the claims of 
foreign missionary service have never been 
personally brought to their attention. If any 
of us would feel gratified at having obtained 
for some young friend the opportunity to earn 
a good salary, we should feel that we had con- 
ferred a much greater favor by enabling him 
to have a personal share in the spread of the 
kingdom of God abroad. If the end of life 
is use and not gain, we should seek positions 
of the greatest usefulness both for ourselves 
and for others. 

Studying, giving, and preaching, however, ^ingchurch 
will be of little avail unless praying accom- 
panies and pervades them. The foreign mis- 
sionary enterprise is essentially spiritual in 
character, and the prayers of the home Church 
are a real asset in conducting it. Therefore, 
"Pray without ceasing." 



266 Why and How of Foreign Missions 

It is sadly true, however, that many profess- 
ing Christians never pray for the missionary 
enterprise from one year's end to the other, 
except unconsciously as they utter the Lord's 
prayer. What excuse can they give? Either 
disbelief in the power of prayer or sheer ig- 
norance and lack of interest would seem to be 
the only possible answers. The latter may be 
your fault or mine. There is greatly needed 
some systematic effort to develop a praying 
Church. Foreign missions should have a 
stated place in the private and family prayer 
of every Christian. It already has such a place 
in thousands of homes. Many of the boards 
publish year-books in which missionaries' 
names and some phase of their work appear 
in connection with each day of the year. Such 
daily remembrance, especially if supplemented 
by information to be found in the yearly re- 
port of the board and the missionary maga- 
zines of the Church, will in time give one a 
sympathetic knowledge of the whole field and 
bring no small cheer to the lonely workers far 
away. Englishmen exulted in the fact that, 
at a given hour on the day of Queen Vic- 
toria's Jubilee, June 20, 1897, "God save the 
Queen" was sung in all the churches and on 
all the ships of the British empire, so that 
with the progress of the sun, jubilant voices 
upraised the national anthem westward over 



Home Church and Enterprise 267 



Spiritual 
Enthusiasm at 



oceans and continents until the mighty chorus 
rolled around the world. In like manner, if 
Christians in the homeland were to lift their 
voices in prayer for missions every morning, 
the entire globe would be belted daily with 
never-ending petitions to God. 

Such praying constitutes a more vital ele- 
ment in missionary success than is commonly victory Abroad 
supposed. The faith of the four friends who 
brought the palsied man to Christ was one 
of the essential factors in the miracle of grace 
that followed. "And Jesus seeing their faith, 
saith unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy 
sins are forgiven." The very largeness 
of the enterprise summons us to a mighty con- 
fidence in God. Foreign missions is the great- 
est task in the world, but we are not conduct- 
ing it alone. It was laid upon us by him who 
declared that "all authority" was given unto 
him and that he would be with his disciples "al- 
ways." He is strong in power and infinite 
in resources, "able to save," and he calls us 
to be co-workers with him. Enthusiasm and 
determination in our response will spell victory 
abroad. 

The Church may well consider the relation f^l^ ivcn 
of spiritual power to missionary zeal. It is 
a fundamental law of the kingdom that power 
is given to be used for others. Talents must 
not be hid in napkins and buried. 



268 Why and How of Foreign Missions 



produced t S he irit The New Testament makes this very clear. 

Early Witnesses Tfae Ho J y Sp J r J t giyen J n order ^ 

disciples might become witnesses. 1 Before 
Pentecost, they had no interest in world 
evangelization; but when the Holy Spirit 
came upon them, they became evangelists to a 
man. The remainder of the Book of Acts is a 
wonderful record of evangelistic spirit and ex- 
tension. The early Church was preeminently 
a missionary Church and its members pro- 
claimed the gospel in almost every part of the 
then known world. 
spStSllfiifi" ^ wou ld be interesting to cite in detail the 
Attended by illustrations incarnated in Ulfilas, Columba, 

Missionary ' 7 

Advance Raymund Lull, and Von Welz. Significant 
also from this view-point is the rise of Pietism 
with its luminous names of Francke and 
Spener, Ziegenbalg and Schwartz. Zinzendorf 
and Moravianism, Wesley and Methodism, 
have their place in such a study, for without 
them we could hardly understand the new era 
of missions which began with Carey. In 
America, the work of Brainerd and Edwards 
was directly related to a new baptism of the 
Holy Spirit. It was not an accident that sev- 
eral of the missionary organizations of the 
nineteenth century were born during the great 
revivals of the first two decades, or a mere 
coincidence that the forward movement in 



1 John xv. 26, 27; xvi, 7, 8; Acts i. 8. 



Home Church and Enterprise 269 

missions that characterized the closing years 
of that century dated from the extraordinary 
revivals of 1875-6. The teaching of history 
on this subject is unbroken. Every deepen- 
ing of the spiritual life has been followed 
by a new effort to give the gospel to the 
world ; but there is no record anywhere of the 
Holy Spirit's power remaining with any 
Church which did not use it in witnessing 
for Christ. 

Here is one cause of the poverty of spiritual 
life. The Church is living too much for itself. 
God has already given it enough power to 
evangelize Europe and America half a dozen 
times over. Is it reasonable to suppose that 
he will increase that power simply for this 
purpose? This suggests the remedy both for 
a low spiritual vitality at home and the com- 
parative failure to support the missionary en- 
terprise on an adequate scale. The Church 
must be spiritually quickened. Foreign mis- 
sions is primarily a spiritual movement and 
only spiritual people will adequately maintain 
it. Dr. Arthur Mitchell was wont to say: 
"The cause of foreign missions goes down to 
the roots of the spiritual life, and we need 
look for no abundance of fruit until that life 
is enriched. " When Henry Martyn, as he 
lay burning with fever in Persia, received a 
letter asking how the missionary interest of 



270 Why and How of Foreign Missions 

the Church at home could be increased, the dy- 
ing saint replied: "Tell them to live more 
with Christ; to catch more of his spirit; for 
the spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions, 
and the nearer we get to him the more in- 
tensely missionary we must become." 

Never before has the summons been so im- 
perative as it is to-day. Practically the whole 
non-christian world is now accessible. Men 
in other spheres are recognizing the oppor- 
tunity. Governments are pressing into the open 
doors and straining every nerve to influence 
these awakening nations. Business firms in 
Europe and America are keenly alive to the 
situation and are sending their agents to the 
remotest parts of the earth. The Greek and 
Roman Catholic Churches are pouring priests 
and brothers, monks and nuns, into heathen 
lands and spending vast sums in equipping 
them with churches and schools. The Moham- 
medans are flooding Africa with zealous mis- 
sionaries. We should show equal loyalty and 
redouble our efforts, that we may mold these 
new conditions before hostile influences 
become established. It is not a rhetori- 
cal figure, but the sober truth that it 
would take treble the sum that the Churches 
are now giving to handle the situation in an 
adequate way. We must apply business com- 
mon sense to our missionary undertakings. 



Home Church and Enterprise 271 



Each Church should immediately consider ifwewfii" 11 
its distinct missionary responsibility and effect- 
ively plan to meet it. Many Churches are al- 
ready doing this, and the others should follow 
their example. There is no valid reason why 
every city and village on the planet should not 
hear the gospel within the next fifty years, and 
have, too, a native Church so far developed 
that it could assume the chief duty of com- 
pleting the work. This is the tremendous 
question of the day: Will the Church rise to 
the opportunity which confronts her? The 
cause of Christ is straitened, not by the Holy 
Spirit, not by the heathen, but only by our- 
selves. We believe, with Father Hecker, that 
"a body of free men, who love God with all 
their might, and yet know how to cling to- 
gether, could conquer this modern world of 
ours." "We can do it if we will." 

We are not prophets, but as we face the crowniS** 
future, may we not see a vision, not the base- Movement 
less dream of the enthusiast, but the reason- 
able expectation of those who believe that the 
divine Hand guides the destinies of men? 
This vision is that the movement for the 
evangelization of the world will grow to more 
and more majestic proportions until all men 
shall know the Lord. Reports from widely 
separated fields amply justify this vision. 
Every mail is burdened with them. Apart 



272 Why and How of Foreign Missions 

from the rapidly increasing number of con- 
verts, there are unmistakable signs that a great 
movement has begun. The very fact that 
heathen systems are passing from indifference 
to hostility and feel obliged to conceal their 
coarser practises and to emphasize their better 
features is a tribute to the growing power of 
Christianity. Society in Asia is becoming 
more ashamed of open vice. Standards of con- 
duct are growing purer. The character of 
Christ is universally conceded to be the loftiest 
in history. What Benjamin Kidd calls the al- 
truistic ideas of Christianity have been liberated 
in non-christian nations and they are slowly 
but surely transforming them. The traveler 
in those vast continents becomes con- 
scious of the working of mighty forces that 
are creating conditions more favorable to the 
rapid triumph of the gospel. He is impressed, 
not so much by the actual number of those 
already converted, as by the strength of the 
current which is sweeping majestically toward 
the goals of God. He feels, with Gibson, that 
the situation is satisfactory; not that we are 
contented with ourselves or with our work, 
but that "a crucial experiment has been 
made. We know what can be done and can 
predict results." We see that we are in the 
trend of the divine purpose and that "his day 
is marching on." 



Home Church and Enterprise 273 



"May the constraining memories of the ESveKeeSing 
cross of Christ and that great love wherewith Nothin & Back 
he loved us be so in us that we may pass that 
love on to those who are perishing. May 
he touch all our hearts with the spirit of self- 
sacrifice and with the inspiration of that love 
of his which, when he came to redeem the 
world, kept nothing back!" 1 



QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER IX 

Aim : To Realize the Personal Responsibility of 
Ourselves and Other Christians at Home 

1. Summarize as strikingly as possible a single 
conclusion you have reached from each of the 
preceding chapters. 

2. In view of the need of the work, state what 
you consider to be the duty of the average 
Christian. 

3. Compare the cost of the foreign missionary 
enterprise in men and money with that of 
the American navy. 

4. Which is worse, a citizen who dodges his 
taxes, or a Christian who dodges his foreign 
missionary obligation? Give reasons for your 
view. 

5. What proportion of the 20,000,000 members of 
evangelical Churches in the United States 
would need to go abroad to supply the need 
for men? 



1 Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop. 



274 Why and How of Foreign Missions 

6. What would be the weekly assessment on each 
Church member to raise the additional funds 
needed? 

7. How does the fact that so many are ignorant 
or indifferent affect the responsibility of those 
who know something about foreign missions 
and are interested in it? 

8. What place ought a subject so important as 
foreign missions to have in the education of 
every Christian ? 

9. How does it seem to you to compare in im- 
portance with ancient history? 

10. How can we secure more time for religious 
education? 

11. How can we secure teachers with better train- 
ing? 

12. Arrange the subjects that should be included 
in the curriculum of religious education in the 
order of their importance. 

13. What are the principal advantages of the mis- 
sion study class as an educational agency? 

14. What special responsibility do you think rests 
upon those who have been members of a mis- 
sion study class? 

15. Write out what you think might be done in 
organizing mission study classes in your own 
congregation. 

16. What do you consider the principal reason 
why comparatively so little money is given to 
foreign missions? 



Home Church and Enterprise 275 

17. What plans do you think would be most ef- 
fective in increasing the amount given by your 
own congregation? 

18. What are the principal motives that should be 
urged in making an appeal for money for for- 
eign missions? 

19. Mention several ways in which a home Chris- 
tian of limited means might aid the missionary 
enterprise. 

20. What missionary organization ought each local 
congregation to have? 

21. What systematic methods should the local con- 
gregation adopt to raise up volunteers for the 
foreign field? 

22. How personal do you think you have a right 
to become in suggesting foreign missionary 
service to another? 

23. W r hat good excuses can you give for not pray- 
ing for foreign missions? 

24. What methods can you suggest for promoting 
prayer for foreign missions in a community? 

25. What suggestions for subjects of prayer have 
you gained from this course? 

26. In what ways will interest in foreign missions 
help home missions? 

27. Is any other cause so neglected in proportion 
to its importance as is foreign missions? 

28. Sum up the principal needs of the foreign 
missionary enterprise. 

29. Which of these needs in your opinion is being 
most adequately and which least adequately 
met? 

30. Why are these needs especially urgent just 
now? 



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